The students at Trinity Hall will soon have a new place to call home as the independent all-girls college preparatory high school signed a contract to move to the former Child Development Center on Hope Road in the Tinton Falls section of Fort Monmouth.
The school, a not-for-profit that is the only all-girls independent high school in Monmouth and Ocean counties, executed a contract with the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA) to purchase the approximately 20,000-square-foot structure and 7.4-acre property Nov. 23.
“We are extremely excited to have the opportunity to open in September 2016 at the Hope Road site,” said Sean Clifford, cofounder and board of trustees chair. “We are excited with the location of Hope Road, given its central location in Monmouth County and its proximity to the Garden State Parkway and Route 18.”
“From the beginning, we have remained engaged with several potential properties and have continuously evaluated our options to ensure we pursued the best option for the future of the school.”
According to Mary Sciarrillo, head of school at Trinity Hall, Fort Monmouth has always been a top choice for the Catholic school’s permanent campus site.
“We have always been interested in Fort Monmouth as a location for our permanent site,” Sciarrillo said. “The Child Development Center building became available in June 2015, and we quickly realized the advantages to this property, such as its convenient location, the existing building and infrastructure and adequate acreage for our school.”
Trinity Hall, which currently has an enrollment of 110 students, has operated from a temporary campus at Croydon Hall, in the Leonardo section of Middletown Township, since 2013. Trinity Hall expects to begin the 2016- 2017 school year at its new site in Tinton Falls, where the school will graduate its first class in May 2017
FMERA, at its Oct. 21 meeting, accepted the school’s $2 million bid for the former childcare facility.
Out of three bids submitted, Trinity Hall was the highest. The other bids came from the Yeshiva School and CommVault, a computer software company that already owns a 55-acre parcel at the fort in Tinton Falls.
The Tinton Falls School District originally intended to purchase the 7.4-acre property to build a new school, but withdraw its interest last year.
“We believe we are acquiring a very attractive site … and our plan is to invest capital to create brand new, state-of-the- art classrooms and science labs for our students,” Clifford said.
According to the agreement, in addition to paying $2 million for the site, the school has agreed to perform approximately $500,000 worth of renovations and upgrades to the site.
“Although we do not have to build from the ground up, the existing building must be gutted and renovated,” Sciarrillo said. “We will be adding nine classrooms and four state-of-the-art science labs.”
According to the agreement, the school will incorporate its current 22 fulltime positions in its new location and will create an additional 100 full time positions at the school within 48 months of closing on the property or will end up paying a penalty of $1,500 per job, with a cap of $183,000.
“Overall our goals remain the same as they would if we were in any location: we are educating and empowering young women and are preparing them for any college program they choose,” Sciarrillo said. “We look forward to giving our students the technology-rich learning environment we are committed to providing.”
“Since our inception in 2012, Trinity Hall’s mission has been to educate and empower young women in the Catholic tradition,” Clifford said. “Our objective was to create an environment where girls can become confident leaders, challenge them with an interdisciplinary curriculum grounded in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, and prepare them for college.
“We remain committed to growing slowly toward our ultimate goal of 350- 400 girls enrolled in the school.
“I am very pleased with the increase in demand we have seen since announcing our plans at our Open Houses in October and November [and] look forward to continuing to welcome interested families as they explore options for their daughters’ high school education.”
As of right now, school officials could not comment on what would come of plans for an approximately 64-acre property on Middletown’s Chapel Hill Road, where they had hoped to construct a permanent campus.
The plan has been surrounded by controversy with neighbors fighting in courts and in front of the Middletown Planning Board, to prevent the construction.
“In July, we were approved by the Middletown Planning Board to locate the high school on Chapel Hill Road,” Sciarrillo said. “The approval was appealed by a neighbor and remains in the New Jersey court system.
“Our board intends to see the process through to its conclusion and will determine next steps when we reach that date.”
For more information visit, www.trinityhallnj.org.