Phase one of the Secaucus High School expansion project is nearly complete, just in time for kids to return to school Sept. 9. That means the initial construction inside the school is nearly done, reconfiguring numerous rooms for more effective use and setting the stage for additional phases of construction over the next full year.
Over the course of the coming school year, a new gym will be built in the rear of the building, along with new administrative offices in the front.
Once completed, the project will result in a greater separation of the high school and middle school, with increased capacity and upgraded facilities. The additional classroom space will allow for sixth grade students to move to the facility beginning in 2016, rather than attend Clarendon and Huber Street schools, as they currently do.
“Every aspect of school will be greatly impacted positively.” –Middle School Principal Rob Valente
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“We had a surge of population in middle grades,” explained John Scheiner, superintendent of buildings and grounds for the Board of Education. “The town is still growing. We’re being proactive before we start crowding classrooms.”
The project was proposed several years ago and “overwhelmingly approved by the public,” said Gonnelli. Construction will last about a year and a half in total and cost an estimated $27 million, to be funded through bonds. The State of New Jersey has agreed to contribute on an annual basis toward payment of the bonds and interest.
“The Secaucus Board of Education is projected to receive approximately $6,904,000 in Debt Service State Aid over the 20 year life of the bonds,” explained Rich Calhoun, interim business administrator for the Board of Education. That number is subject to change as the state reviews the funding annually.
One more year of construction
“We’re removing the art room on the first floor to make room for three classrooms that will be part of the middle school,” said High School Principal Robert “Dr. Bob” Berckes. “Upstairs three classrooms will become an art room. The culinary arts/home economics/sewing area was redesigned and modified and a new hallway is going in. Business classrooms will be changed over to a BYOD area, where kids bring their own devices to school if they have cell phones, iPads, Chromebooks.”
School administrators will be allowed access to the building beginning on Monday to prepare for the school opening, with final interior construction to be completed over the course of next week.
Exterior construction will then continue over the course of the school year. A new gym will be constructed at the back of the property with new locker rooms.
“The old gym will be reconfigured with a hallway to the new gym, and the bleachers turned in the opposite direction,” said Berckes. “So we can have sports in two gyms. Phys ed classes will be smaller, with better activities, instruction, and security.”
New offices are also being constructed at the front of the building for the middle school staff, separating them from the high school administrators. “The way the building is currently configured,” said Middle School Principal Rob Valente, “I have one middle school guidance counselor in my office and one in the guidance area, which is shared. Once this is over, it will be a much better set up.”
Final stages next summer
Pile driving has been completed, according to Scheiner. “We’re excavating for footings and foundations now,” he said. “Hopefully that will be done by the end of this week. Concrete will be poured shortly after that.”
The goal is to have the concrete in place before school begins on Sept. 9. “Probably within one to one-and-a-half months we’ll be erecting steel,” said Scheiner. Special measures are being taken to ensure safety for the students. “Steps are being taken like having the steel put up on weekends. For safety purposes we’re not swinging cranes while kids are in the area.”
“The biggest impact that it will have is the traffic pattern of dropping off and picking up,” said Valente. “The middle school main entrance will be displaced for one year, so students will be coming in the high school side of the building. Other than that, it’s the same classrooms and everything else remains the same.”
Once the exterior construction is completed it will be time to move on to the final interior construction next summer, after school lets out. The “cafetorium,” originally designed as a combination cafeteria and auditorium, will be gutted and made into a straight cafeteria with increased seating. The stage will be removed, as the Performing Arts Center (PAC) next door serves that function far more effectively.
The existing offices will be redesigned as well, as the middle school moves administration to the new space, and the media center will be expanded.
“By this point next year we should be very close to finishing,” said Valente. “Every aspect of school will be greatly impacted positively. The thing I’m most excited about is the brand new STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) lab.”
Traffic patterns adjusted
“This school was built starting in 1973. The first class was in the fall of 1975,” said Scheiner, who was among the 140 students in the initial class to go through four years in the high school, graduating in 1980.
Prior to that, “We had a cooperative agreement with Weehawken,” he said. “Secaucus students went to Weehawken High.”
Middle school students in Secaucus at that time attended Lincoln School, opened in 1929. Lincoln was closed when the current high school/middle school opened, and ultimately razed to make way for the Kroll Heights senior housing building.
“Then the PAC was built on to the school as well as a small addition in front,” said Scheiner. “They turned all the old shop classes into instructional space in 2001.”
The new renovation project is joined by a change to the traffic patterns around the school, announced by Mayor Gonnelli at the Town Council meeting on Aug. 25.
Instead of having separate one-way entrance and exit driveways, as currently exist, the two will each be converted into two-way thoroughfares. “I think it will really turn out to alleviate a lot of the traffic that currently exists in that area,” said Gonnelli. Work was expected to commence this week on the driveway adjustments, in preparation for school opening on Sept. 9.
Art Schwartz may be reached at arts@hudsonreporter.com.