Stone Bridge Middle School readies to open

Bridge to the future

By: centraljersey.com
Staff photos by Joanne Degnan
Staff photos by Joanne Degnan
Top, Upper Freehold Regional Superintendent Dick Fitzpatrick in the gymnasium at the new Stone Bridge Middle School; above, a portion of the gym; left, Stone Bridge Principal Mark Guterl gives maps of the building to eighth-graders Stephanie Kaminstein (left) and Jessica Holtsclaw, whose mom, Suzanne Holtsclaw of Cream Ridge, brought the girls on Friday’s tour.
The Stone Bridge Middle School cafeteria is all polished and ready to go for the first day of school on Sept. 13.
School
8SCHOOL
Joanne Degnan
Staff Writer
ALLENTOWN – Parents, grandparents, children and the simply curious eagerly toured the new Stone Bridge Middle School last week to see the $51.5 million project that will give the Upper Freehold Regional School District some much-needed breathing room when it opens Sept. 13.
Approximately 565 district students in grades five through eight will be educated at Stone Bridge when it opens later this month, greatly reducing overcrowding at the elementary school building where last year 1,264 children in grades K-8 were shoe-horned into a facility built for 600.
At open houses on Aug. 26 and 27, the community got a sneak peek inside the new 180,000-square-foot middle school, where hundreds of large windows flood the 42 classrooms, hallways and atriums with natural sunlight. There also is a 622-seat auditorium with its own sound and light system, a TV studio, two art rooms (including one with potter’s wheels and kiln), a large gymnasium with polished wooden floors and bleachers, a smaller auxiliary gym, a band room, a choral room, a library/media center and adjoining computer lab.
"Welcome, Welcome! How do you like it?" Superintendent of Schools Dick Fitzpatrick could be heard asking everyone he encountered Friday as he walked the freshly painted halls. Visitors repeated the same enthusiastic one-word response again and again: "Wow!"
Stone Bridge’s four grade levels each has its own wing of classrooms, all of which are equipped with interactive SMART boards. Each wing also has a separate science lab, science prep room, and boys and girls bathrooms.
"The concept is schools within a school, that is each grade level has its own pod, its own area," Dr. Fitzpatrick said.
The fifth- and sixth-grade wings are on the first-floor, and the seventh- and eighth-graders occupy the second floor.
"I told the eighth-graders that they are up on the second floor for this reason: I want everybody else in the building to look up to you as role models," Dr. Fitzpatrick said.
In the cafeteria, the stainless steel in the kitchen area is polished to a squint-inducing shine. The dining area’s back wall has floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto acres of meadows and woods behind the school.
Stone Bridge also is a model of energy-saving green technology that can be incorporated into science lessons. Photovoltaic panels for producing solar energy are installed on the rooftop, and a geothermal HVAC system made possible by 192 wells located beneath the back athletic fields will heat and cool the building.
At the Friday open house, Principal Mark Guterl stood in the atrium greeting visitors and pointing out the school’s symbol on the terrazzo flooring beneath his feet. The terrazzo inlays form a directionally accurate compass rose, one of several on floors throughout the building that are meant to remind students that their mission as middle school students is to find their "true north" academically, morally, socially and personally, Mr. Guterl said.
The intricate inlay work on the true-north compasses was done at no extra charge to the district by an 82-year-old terrazzo artisan and his nephews who said they wanted to showcase their craftsmanship in a building that will last well into the next century, Dr. Fitzpatrick said.
Dr. Fitzpatrick says Stone Bridge is a school planned with future growth in mind. Although built for up to 875 students, the building could hold up to 1,050 children in the decades ahead if art, technology and other large rooms are converted into classroom space to accommodate future enrollment.
Designed by the Trenton-based architectural firm Faridy, Veisz and Fraytak, Stone Bridge Middle School benefited from the recent slowdown in the construction industry that produced more competitive bidding. The lower bids enabled the district to add eight classrooms to the building without going over budget, Dr. Fitzpatrick said.
Although the actual construction took less than two years, planning did not go as smoothly.
Voters in 2004 approved spending $38.3 million for a new middle school that was supposed to be built on Ellisdale Road. The project was to be paid for with $5.7 million in state grant money and $32.6 million in locally financed bonds, according to Business Administrator Diana Schiraldi.
But problems with soil remediation and wastewater management at the Ellisdale Road site forced the district to go back to the voters again in 2007 for an additional $13.2 million so that the school could be built instead at its current location at 1252 Yardville-Allentown Road.
The opening of Stone Bridge frees up space at the elementary school, which means the district will no longer have to spend about $37,000 a year to rent the Robbinsville Field House so that all UFRSD children can take physical education classes, Dr. Fitzpatrick said.
In addition, the district will not need to rent three classrooms at a cost of $45,000 a year from Millstone for the UFRSD integrated preschool program, he said. Upper Freehold Regional will now have the space for the program, he said.
Deliveries of furniture and supplies are scheduled to be staggered throughout the week at Stone Bridge to allow for cleaning the building and the last phases of the contracted work to finish up, Dr. Fitzpatrick said. The building already has received its temporary certificate of occupancy, he said.