Construction of New Long Branch School Progressing

Students from Long Branch's West End School were on hand Thursday morning to show how far construction of the district's newest school, the George L. Catrambone School, has progressed since workers broke ground on the project last September.

The students signed a piece of metal and a beam that will be used in the construction of the school, during a ceremony held at West End School.

Charles Caramanna of GreyHawk North America LLC, the construction manager for the Catrambone School, said the beam will be one of the last pieces of structural steel incorporated into the new building.

The Catrambone School will be a 109,000 square-foot, two-story facility designed to educate approximately 800 students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grades. The building is being constructed on the site of the former Elberon Elementary School which was demolished in 2009. 

The facility will include 41 classrooms, four special education classrooms, a cafetorium, stage, computer room, gymnasium, media center/library, art room and a music room. Construction is scheduled to be completed in time for the 2014-15 school year.

During an interview after the ceremony, Long Branch School District Superintendent Michael Salvatore said the West End School will close once the Catrambone School opens.

He said the school would be taken "offline" after the 2013-14 school year.

"Taking it offline means it's not going to be used for students and it could mean we will attempt to sell the property," Salvatore has said. "The cost to renovate it would be entirely to expensive."

Closing the school, which serves kindergarten through fifth grade students, would mean redistricting for students. Salvatore students who would have attended the West End School for the 2014-15 school year would now attend the Catrambone School.

He said Aurdrey W. Clark Elementary School students will also likely attend the Catrambone School. Another group of students will attend Aurdrey W. Clark in an effort to ease some of the overcrowding concerns that have been voiced by district officials in the past.