Morris Avenue School Redesign to be Completed in August

The Morris Avenue School redesign project will be completed before the 2012-13 school year begins.

The interior of the design of the school is being reconfigured into a modern style classroom setting.

The school, built in the 1973, feature pod classrooms which were designed to promote a "free-flowing style of education where students moved from one learning area to another and teachers worked in teams," according to Long Branch School District Manager of Communications Walter J. O'Neill.

"Instead of solid walls separating the rooms, the pods used partitions, none of which reached the ceiling," O'Neill said in a release. "Instead of walking out one door and into another to go from class to class, you simply walk around the partitions."

However, noise tended to go up and over the partitions and became a distraction for teachers and students, prompting the district to modernize the school with 16 classrooms separated by walls.

Long Branch School District Superintendent Michael Salvatore has said that pod architecture is not a good environment for learning, but that he wanted to keep the flat roof of the school intact because it is ideal for solar panels.

"We have solar all over the roof and its become a great revenue building," Salvatore has said.

The construction project is scheduled to be completed in August with fresh paint, improved flooring, new ceilings and walls equipped with new furniture.

The school set aside $700,000 from last year's increase in state aid, but the bids came in at a lower price, allowing the school to not have to use all the leftover funds to pay for the construction.