New elementary school
will bear familiar name
By linda denicola
Staff Writer
FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — Plans are moving forward for the construction of a new elementary school on Wemrock Road and for the construction of all-day kindergarten pods for the district’s other elementary schools.
At a recent meeting of the Board of Education meeting, board members voted unanimously to name the new K-5 school the West Freehold School. According to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Peter J. Bastardo, board members felt it was extremely important to maintain the name because there has always been a West Freehold School in the township.
"One of the first one-room school houses was named the West Freehold School," Bastardo said, noting that the current West Freehold School, Stillwells Corner Road, will be renamed the Freehold Township Early Childhood Learning Center.
The new elementary school will be built off Route 537, near Wemrock Road.
Bidders for the construction of the kindergarten pods at the district’s elementary schools were picked during the meeting. The total amount, which includes general construction; structural steel; plumbing, drainage and sprinkler systems; heating, ventilating and air conditioning; and electrical work, comes to $11,263,744.
"Hopefully we’re going to be starting construction within the next couple weeks," Bastardo said, adding that the construction of the kindergarten pods will take between 12 and 14 months.
Administrators have said that when the new kindergarten pods are constructed the district will be able to offer full-day kindergarten classes.
As for the construction of the new elementary school, the state has the plans for review, the superintendent said.
"We’re hoping that will be done within a week or so, so that we can go out to bid by the end of month," Bastardo said.
He said the target date for the opening of the school is January or February 2004.
Bastardo said the boundaries for student assignments to the new West Freehold School have not been defined yet.
"We’re putting together a committee of parents and staff to start looking at that now," he said.
Called the Student Attendance Advisory Committee, the 10- to 12-member panel with representatives from each school should begin meeting within the next month, according to the superintendent.
"We’ve had one in the district since 1997 when we had the first referendum. They worked very hard with us at that time," he said.
Last year a $27 million referendum was passed for new construction. Once the new elementary school is open, the children in the West Freehold School will be going to the new school and the present West Free-hold School will become an early childhood center for special needs preschool students and a limited number of regular preschool students, according to district administrators.