Middle School’s new cafetorium nearly ready

All new construction is expected to be completed by June

BY ELAINE VAN DEVELDE
Staff Writer

BY ELAINE VAN DEVELDE
Staff Writer


ELAINE VAN DEVELDE Work on the new addition at the Tinton Falls Middle School, Tinton Avenue, came to a slight standstill with the icy cold weather. Still, officials expect the new construction to be completed  and ready for students by the start of the September school year.ELAINE VAN DEVELDE Work on the new addition at the Tinton Falls Middle School, Tinton Avenue, came to a slight standstill with the icy cold weather. Still, officials expect the new construction to be completed and ready for students by the start of the September school year.

TINTON FALLS — Borough Middle School students are expected to be lunching in a new cafetorium by March.

The new space is part of the 18-month construction project that has been going on at the school on Tinton Avenue since last April. The entire project is expected to be complete in June.

"What will happen is that somewhere between February and March, depending on inspections and certificates of occupancy, the new cafetorium will be ready for students to eat in," said Tamar Gens, school board secretary/business administrator. "While the students are using the new cafetorium for lunches, the existing cafeteria (designed solely for lunches) will then be renovated to serve as an auxiliary gymnasium. So, you could say, to some extent, students will be ‘moving in’ to new surroundings, but not in total."

Students are already using some of the space improved by the construction paid for in the referendum. Two bathrooms and three classrooms inside the existing building were renovated over the summer as part of the project.

Five new classrooms in an addition are scheduled for completion in June and will be ready for occupancy in September.

The project, which Gens said is "on schedule with no problems," was approved by voters in 2001 after the board was forced to reconfigure its schools to alleviate overcrowding at the middle school.

To accommodate all of the students slated to attend the middle school in 2001-02, the board moved the sixth-graders to the Swimming River Elementary School, which had housed third- through fifth-graders. The third-graders were moved to Mahala F. Atchison School, which was then attended by kindergarten through second-grade students and which had the space to accommodate them.

The $6 million referendum to pay for the renovations and expansion of the facilities nearing completion was passed in 2001.

"The referendum actually asked taxpayers to foot the bill for $4.5 million in renovations and additions," Gens said. "The remaining $1.5 million worth of work was offset by state grants. It worked out to taxpayers hardly paying anything."

Come September, when the new school year starts and the new construction is ready for occupancy, temporarily relocated sixth-graders will return to the school.