Ground Broken at Redshaw School Site

Better late than never.

On Thursday morning, New Brunswick officials, joined by the School Development Authority, Sen. Bob Smith and dozens of A.C. Redshaw Elementary School students broke ground on the the site of what will finally be a new building for the beleaguered school.

A.C. Redshaw students will have been in a converted warehouse space on Jersey Avenue for 10 years by the time the new school opens in the 2014-15 school year.

The new Redshaw school will be 135,000 sq. feet, with 44 classrooms, six kindergarten classrooms and 10 early childhood classrooms. It will also have an art room, a computer lab, a gymnasium and a cafeteria, said Superintendent Richard Kaplan.

And, after nearly 10 years, Redshaw will have a playground, facing nearby Livingston School, he said.

The total cost of the project is $51.2 million, according to the School Development Authority (SDA).

Mayor James Cahill said that the city was happy to see movement on the project, but that Redshaw is a prime example of "How not to develop a school" after waiting eight years to see construction finally begin.

"By any standard of measurement, that is unacceptable," he said.

Demolition and Delays

Redshaw school was demolished with the intent of a brand-new updated school to be built by the state on its existing site.

According to Cahill, the district requested the state wait on the demolition until the plans for the new building got the green light.

The project moved ahead, and "we had no say in anything," Kaplan said.

The school was demolished in July 2005, and shortly thereafter the state informed Kaplan that the Redshaw project was to be shut down, due to a lack of funds.

"Needless to say, in New Brunswick, we were devastated," he said.

The project continued to stall throughout the election of Gov. Chris Christie, who took office and decided that the SDA was in real need of reform. All new school construction projects in the urban districts were frozen until the beginning of 2011, when Christie issued a list of priority projects to be completed, including Redshaw.

Throughout the delays, the district has been vocal about the stalled project that has put an entire generation of elementary school students through their grade school years in a warehouse located outside of their neighborhood.

With the arrival of the Christie administration, leadership of the SDA was also handed over to Chief Financial Officer Marc Larkins, a man that Kaplan said he has confidence in.

Larkins said the SDA is "proud" to be a part of the Redshaw project, and plans on continuing the work it started in the city so long ago.

"The Redshaw students have been without their school building for far too long,” Larkins said, in a prepared statement. “Through the Christie Administration’s targeted use of practices such as design-build, we are hopeful that we will be able to deliver this project to the New Brunswick community quickly and efficiently.”

In September of last year, the New Brunswick school board awarded a contract to Hall Construction Co., Inc. of Howell, for $35 million to design and build the new Redshaw building. On Thursday, a construction crew could be seen working on the site during the ceremony.

Construction in New Brunswick schools

Around the time of Redshaw's demolition, the state also commissioned a new high school to be built. New Brunswick High School was complete in January 2010, managed by the New Brunswick Development Corporation (DEVCO).

A state of the art building, the $185 million, 400,000 sq. ft building opened six months ahead of schedule and $5 million under budget.

Paul Robeson Community School is the next school to begin work, as a $30.9 million renovation and addition is scheduled there.

Ten extra classrooms and a larger library are scheduled to go in, as well as 20 additional kindergarten and preschool classrooms. The addition would end the school's need to rent classroom space at Sacred Heart School, where the Paul Robeson Annex is housed.

Kaplan said that the Robeson construction is also estimated to be completed during the 2014-15 school year. During that time, students there will be moved into the warehouse space for a year and a half to two years.

At Thursday morning's ceremony, Kaplan bent down to address a gaggle of Redshaw elementary students, pointing to the construction area behind him.

"See that dirt mound over there?" he said. "That's where we will dig the hole and build your new school."

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