Nearly four years after East Brunswick residents approved a $106.1 million referendum for improvements at three schools, the fruits of their investment can now be seen.
School officials are celebrating the completion of additions and renovations at Hammarskjold Middle School. Above, middle school students walk the expansive corridors, flanked with rows of windows to take advantage of natural sunlight. Right: Architectural details such as this multitiered ceiling in a chemistry classroom at the newly renovated Hammarskjold Middle School are designed to enhance the learning environment. School officials held an open house Oct. 25 at the mostly new Hammarskjold Middle School, Rues Lane, to show the community the spacious facility’s new features. The old school building was replaced, except for a 1996 addition, and can now accommodate 1,700 students. Only minor improvements remain to be made at the middle school, which was the final phase of the three-school project. The first two involved additions and renovations at the Central and Lawrence Brook elementary schools.
Hammarskjold Principal Michael Gaskell, Superintendent of Schools Jo Ann Magistro and Board of Education President Todd Simmens spoke at the event, which also featured performances by the Hammarskjold Middle School Orchestra Honors Ensemble.
While students and teachers have been enjoying the school since September, visitors looked awestruck as they opened the doors and entered a lobby filled with natural light. They wandered through the halls, peeking into classrooms and checking their tour maps as seventh-grade ambassadors provided guidance.
Gaskell noted that the first impression of the new school does not wear off easily.
“Even though it’s October and the students have been back for a while, there is still a sense of enthusiasm and excitement about the new building,” he said.
The old building was built in 1961 and was considered outdated and overcrowded, with the capacity for just 800 students. The new one is bright, spacious and airy.
About 1,550 students in grades six and seven attend Hammarskjold, the school district’s only middle school, and officials said the new facility is designed to provide the maximum learning experience for all of them. Classes that students attend most frequently are set close together and near their lockers.
SCOTT FRIEDMAN Computer labs were made larger in keeping with the district’s technology objectives. “They don’t have to run from one area of the building to the other to get to their lockers and then to their classes,” said Assistant Principal Cheryl Jones. The science rooms have Smart Screens for easy instruction, and there are sinks in the labs so that no one needs to run down the hall.
With the old building, lunch had to be served in five different sessions. The new cafeteria can accommodate 500 students at a time, and there are now two serving bays to keep the lines shorter. There are two new gymnasiums filled with natural light, music rooms, computer rooms and an outdoor amphitheater.
The Hammarskjold construction cost about $66.5 million, with the state paying $12.3 million of that.
Melody Fakhrzadeh, one of the seventhgrade student ambassadors, said her favorite part of the school is the media center, which in the old days would have been known as the library. It houses books, computers and the studios used to broadcast student announcements every morning.
Magistro favors another area.
“My favorite part of the building is the performing arts center,” the superintendent said. It is not only the beauty of the room that appeals to her but the potential it holds. “The stage is large enough to have the whole orchestra play together. We can have the high school put on performances here.”
The performing arts auditorium can hold 1,000 people. Two sections contain retractable seats and moveable partitions that are easily transformed into classrooms.
“For the first time, we were able to have all of the [school district] staff in one place,” Gaskell said, referring to a recent training event.
“This performing art center is not just for the school, but for the entire community. The ‘Nutcracker’ ballet will be performed here and New York Voices [a Grammy-winning jazz vocal ensemble] will be entertaining and working with our students,” said Jeffrey Lesser, director of arts education for East Brunswick schools.
Building architect Jeff Venezia, of Design Ideas Architects, talked about the school’s design for saving energy.
“Though it is one and a half times the size of the old building, it is much more energy efficient,” he said. “We make use of natural light and we also have the lights connected to motion detectors so that if there is no one in the room the lights go out.”
The students’ enthusiasm was apparent.
“The school is awesome,” said seventhgrader Sarah Ramos. “The old school was a lot more crowded.”
Her father, Luis, likened it to a college, and her mother Raquel was also satisfied.
“They really needed the space,” she said.

