By Sherry conohan
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY JEFF GRANIT The just completed, new addition to the Shrewsbury Borough School, above, offers an expanded and renovated gym/cafeteria and three kindergarten classrooms. At right, the existing school underwent extensive renovations including creation of a new media center/library from the old cafetorium.

When the Shrewsbury Boro School opens its doors Sept. 17, students and teachers will find a new gym/cafeteria with a performing arts stage, a new media/library center with a computer lab, and five new classrooms waiting for them.

A just completed new addition to the western end of the school contains a 90-by-90-foot gym/cafeteria and performing arts stage, equipped with the proper lighting for school productions, and three kindergarten classrooms. The gym/cafeteria incorporates portions of the old gym which were renovated as part of the construction.

The old cafetorium has been converted into a media/library center with a computer lab boasting 25 stations for computers. Air conditioning and a humidity control system were added for proper storage of books. The media/library center is double the size of the old library and capable of holding twice as many books.

The old library was transformed into two eighth-grade classrooms and one small-group instruction space.

Jim Halpern, a member of the Board of Education and point person on the $5.4 million project as chairman of the School Facilities Committee, said the addition and renovations will carry the school for the foreseeable future.

"The demographics show that it will be adequate because there is no more buildable space in Shrewsbury," he said during a tour of the facilities.

The school now has three classes for each grade level and a total of 530 students. The last eighth grade with only two classes graduated two years ago.

While the new classrooms will accommodate 24 to 25 students, the average class size is 19 or 20 students, according to Halpern.

A view of the new playground equipment at the Shrewsbury school.

"We got a lot of school for the money," he said.

The state is contributing $1.8 million toward the total cost of the project through the Educational Facilities and Construction Act, leaving the local share at $3.6 million.

Barbara Forsyth, assistant superintendent of the school district and coordinator of special services, said she was very excited that the additional classrooms would allow the institution of all-day kindergarten this year.

She said there also will be two half-day preschool disabled classes, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, instead of only one.

Forsyth also was pleased with the new stage and lighting in the gym.

"We’ve always had children that are highly interested in the performing arts," she said. "The community is interested in them, too."

Forsyth said the new media center/library with computer lab would be a big boon for students, enabling them to do more research for their studies.

"We also view it as a community gathering place," she said, where meetings of community groups will be held. "We’re just such a community-oriented school. We have wonderful parental support.

"We have a Parent Teacher Group that brings in wonderful, creative assembly programs," she said. "We’re very excited about the playground" equipment they have donated.

Each of the new kindergarten rooms and the renovated room for the preschool disabled classes has an exterior door opening onto a playground for their use only.

Each of the rooms also has its own bathroom and kitchen.

The new gym has a folding wall that can be drawn from one side to the other, dividing it in half so students can be having lunch on one side while a physical education class is taking place on the other.

Lisa Porada, a member of both the Board of Education and the School Facilities Committee, and chairwoman of the School and Community Relations Committee, said the new stage and lights will allow the school to develop a theater arts and drama program.

She said the hallway in the new addition, which extends past the three new kindergarten rooms to the kitchen and cafeteria entrance, through which all the students have to pass en route to lunch, will become a gallery for student art.

Of particular interest to parents, she said, will be the expanded parking lot on the far side of the addition with 50 percent more spaces for cars.

Porada noted that the ballfields were completely renovated.

Back inside, both the old kindergarten rooms in the existing school were renovated, one for the preschool disabled classes and one for the occupational therapy and speech therapy teachers. The child guidance team suite also was renovated and the hallways were given new ceilings and new lighting.

Halpern said there now is a classroom for enrichment and gifted and talented classes.

He said the school was wired during construction for all the new technology. He said cable television has been brought into the building and there’s a telephone in every classroom. The new electrical service includes a complete backup system with a generator in case of a power outage, he said.

The plumbing was updated and roofing was done in the existing school.

Halpern said while site work for the project was completed last fall, construction didn’t begin until February.

"We didn’t dig the first hole until January," he said.

"We’re very proud of the fact that we’re on time and on budget," Porada said.

The School Facilities Committee, which has been meeting every Wednesday throughout the construction, also includes Michael Losch, the Board of Education chairman, and Steve Wikoff, a board member.

The architect for the project is David Fraytak of Faridy, Veisz & Fraytak, Trenton. The general contractor was Kelso Construction Co. of Tinton Falls. Halpern said there were five prime contractors.

"The committee has been managing the primes," he said.

A dedication of the addition and renovations, which the community is invited to, is being planned by the Board of Education for November.

"The kids in Shrewsbury are going to enjoy the building for a long time to come," Porada said. "We designed this for the kids."