Schools

Long Branch School District Looking To Sell West End School

The school will close following the 2013-14 school year.

By Christopher Sheldon

The oldest school in the Long Branch School District is officially for sale.

The district is seeking bids for the school, Long Branch School District Michael Salvatore said this week.

"It's a very valuable piece of land," Salvatore said. 

Salvatore said he did not know the exact value of the property, but that no minimum bid was set for the sale.

The Long Branch Board of Education approved making the property available in October and bids are due in January.

Salvatore said the school will be taken offline following the 2013-14 school year whether it is sold or not.

"We could be creative and find some other use for it, but we'd prefer to give somebody else the chance to be creative with it," Savlatore said.

Salvatore said the scheduled opening of the George L. Catrambone School and closure of the West End School will cause a realignment of the district's elementary schools.

Kindergarten classrooms will be pulled from the district's current elementary schools and placed into the Joseph M. Ferraina Early Childhood Learning Center and Lenna W. Conrow School, which are currently preschools. The Morris Avenue School will also become an exclusive early education center after serving as a home for pre-kindergarten to third grade students.

The Gregory School and Amerigo A. Anastasia Schools will no longer have kindergarten classrooms and will now house students in grades 1-5.

After this upcoming school year, students from the Joseph M. Ferraina Early Childhood Learning Center will feed into the Anastasia School, Lenna W. Conrow students will feed into the Gregory School and Morris Avenue School students will feed into the Catrambone School.

Salvatore said the redistricting will result in two empty elementary schools; the West End School and the Audrey W. Clark School School.

The Audrey W. Clark School will become the new home to the district's alternative education program. The district is currently renting space at the Holy Trinity School for program which is designed for students with "unique learning styles," according to Salvatore.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here