Expansion plan focuses on two locations
By Greg Forester
Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — An Eden Institute committee has narrowed down the future location of its new school for autistic children to two properties, including an Alexander Road site and a location north of the current school on southbound Route 1 at Harrison Street.
Officials have looked at over 100 locations in the area, according to President Tom McCool.
Due to New Jersey’s high rate of autistism, the Eden Institute has always had a long list of children waiting to get into its programs since it opened in 1975 in an 18,000-square-foot former telephone switching station.
The need for more space led to consideration of sites in the West Windsor area for the construction of a larger state-of-the-art facility for autistic treatment.
After a disorganized look at many sites, Eden regrouped and enlisted the help of Chuck Klein, a project manager, to get everything back on track, Eden officials said.
”Mr. Klein came in and established specific procedures for the process, and we then did a process of elimination,” said Mr. McCool. “Now, at our board meeting this month, we plan on looking at those two sites with the hope that by the beginning of December 2007 we will have made a decision to select one of those as the future site of the Eden school.”
Eden employees have been working with architects to develop plans for the new structure which will better fit the unique needs of children with autism, according to Mr. McCool.
The new building will be more than twice as large as the current school, including more space for physical activities, and what Mr. McCool called “time-out” space.
Large amounts of space are important to the treatment of autistic children, and the current location does not provide enough of the commodity, Eden officials said.
There are other amenities that Eden employees are planning for inclusion in the new facility.
The school will have rooms meant to replicate both home and office settings with the purpose of acclimating autistic children to those settings so they can one day work comfortably in an office and perform day-to-day activities in a home, Mr. McCool said.
”The room made to replicate the home will look like a bedroom and a living area, so the children could spend time in the home and learn skills,” said Mr. McCool. “They will make beds, clean, make food and learn to relax in the setting of a home.”
The office setting will be used in the hope of helping the children adapt to the point where they could actually work in an office setting, especially later in life.
”They can practice answering phones and doing office tasks, like the kinds of things we will be looking for them to do as adults,” Mr. McCool said.
KSS Architects of Princeton’s Marilee Meacock — who specializes in school design — has been working on the plans with Eden. “She works directly with our teaching staff to design the facility, “ Mr. McCool said.
Eden officials said they hope the new school will provide guidance to other autistic treatment facilities.

