open for business Feb. 18
By jeanette M. eng
Staff Writer
MARLBORO — Students at the Marl-boro Middle School will get a chance to hang onto their Marlboro Memorial Mid-dle School counterparts a little bit longer.
According to Superintendent of Schools Dr. David Abbott, the doors to the new middle school on Nolan Road will remain closed come Feb. 18, the targeted opening date since the first delay was announced at a Nov. 20 Board of Edu-cation meeting.
Board members had initially hoped to open the new middle school on Jan. 2.
"We will not be opening on the 18th and it all comes down to getting all the approvals," Abbott told the News Transcript.
According to Abbott, the final ap-provals required before anyone is allowed in the building include those from municipal authorities, the water authority, the sewer authority and electrical approvals.
"I can assure you, however, that we are working hand in glove with the municipal authorities," Abbott said.
Another factor at play is the "number of substitutes that I can glean," as the superintendent put it. In order for the moving-in process to take place without disrupting the education process, a hefty number of substitute teachers will be required.
"I have 58 instructional staff [to move in] and some of them need more than one day," Abbott explained. "And right now, I can only get a hold of 10 good substitutes."
Abbott noted that "education is most important" and his focus is to "have good education going on while we have teachers moving in."
He said two weeks will be the ideal amount of time to allow all of the staff to move in to the new school, although that time can be compressed if needed.
Once the staff is in place, about 550 seventh- and eighth-graders will be the first students to attend the new facility on Nolan Road, while 950 seventh- and eighth-graders will remain in the Marlboro Middle School, Route 520.
With the move in mind, the Marlboro Middle School has been organized into two separate entities since the beginning of this school year. According to Assistant Superintendent of Schools Dr. Marc Gaswirth, the two schools within the one middle school have their own teachers, classrooms and principals.
Joanmarie Penny is the principal of the Marlboro Memorial Middle School who will be moving to that building with her students when district administrators are given the OK to occupy the facility.
A plan put in place by the board will continue to take shape in September when fifth-graders now attending the district’s five elementary schools start sixth grade in one of the two middle schools. At present, sixth-graders are housed in the elementary schools.
The "memorial" in Marlboro Memorial Middle School is dedicated to the events of Sept. 11. That was the highest recurring theme when names were being suggested for the new school. Plans for the Nolan Road facility include the construction of a Sept. 11 memorial in the form of an outdoor teaching plaza.