at Freehold Borough H.S.
By dave benjamin
Staff Writer
Renovations and improvements are in full swing at Freehold Borough High School.
"If you’ve been anywhere near Route 79 and Robertsville Road, we are taking apart a high school," Superintendent of Schools James Wasser said in an update report to the Freehold Regional High School District Board of Education. "We hope to put it back together before September. So, don’t get too excited."
Speaking during a board meeting held at the FRHSD’s administrative offices in Englishtown, Wasser said there is a tremendous amount of work being done during the summer on all sides of the school.
"We’re bringing it up to the state-of-the-art school that it should be," he said. "I think that when we get done people will be very pleased."
Wasser said the builders are matching the new brick with the old to ensure a seamless look for the entire building. The superintendent said work is in progress not only on the outside of the school, but also on the inside.
"There’s a lot of work there," he said. "They’re taking down the ceiling tiles. While they’re taking down the wet tiles that are inside, the roofers are fixing the roof so that water doesn’t come in. Then they’ll put new tiles up."
Wasser said the school will look great once the project is completed. Work began as soon as students left the building in June, with plans to have the renovations done by September.
"The gym floor is another project we decided [to do]," Wasser said. "That is the oldest floor [in the district]. Instead of trying to refinish it again we decided to rip up that floor and put a new gym floor down. That was the only school with an old gym floor. Most of them have newer ones or they’ve all gotten additional gym floors. We thought we’d take that gym and jazz it up."
Regarding the high school’s Five Star Cafe, in which culinary students serve the public, Wasser said, "You’re not going to believe what the new one is going to look like."
The cafe will have a separate bakery and a separate area for waiters and waitresses to do the menus. He said students in the culinary program have done a great job working in conditions that were tight and narrow.
"Now we’re putting in a real facility for that program," he said.
Wasser said it is likely that an additional $2 million or more will be spent at Freehold Borough then had been anticipated in the FRHSD’s $69 million referendum project, but he said that money is left over from the other schools’ upgrades. The extra money to be spent at Freehold Borough is not an additional expense, he told the board.
"That is the oldest building," the superintendent said. "That was the first school in this region, so it deserves to get the extra money, if we have it."
Wasser said contractors are pushing to complete the projects on the Robertsville Road side of the building by August. That work includes the attendance area, the guidance department, the child study team area and the bathrooms.
A new intercom system is expected to be installed and it is hoped that the Five Star Cafe and the new science wing will be completed as scheduled, since the weather has been cooperating. Additionally, the art studio area is being worked on.
"There are a lot of things going on," Wasser said. "We will not be finished with everything, obviously, by September, but we will be able to get back in order, have the students in, continue the process and finish [all of the work] by early fall or early winter."