New Brunswick will break ground next week on new elementary school

NEW BRUNSWICK – Groundbreaking is scheduled next week for the state-of-the-art elementary school to be constructed on Jersey Avenue.

The new three-story, 127,400-square-foot school at 50 Jersey Ave. will house students in grades K-8. The groundbreaking is scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday.

The new school will replace Lincoln Annex School, the former St. Peter’s High School and Elementary School, which is being demolished for construction of the state’s first free-standing cancer hospital.

The demolition should be completed in about a week, said Christopher Paladino, president of New Brunswick Development Corporation or DEVCO, the nonprofit redeveloper for the projects.

“It will take us another several weeks to get all the debris sorted and off the site,” he said. “Our plan is to start doing excavation at the site on June 6.”

The new school will include approximately 14,000 square feet of outdoor playground space in the center of the site. The school also will have a gymnasium, cafeteria and a multi-purpose room with a stage.

There will be 55 classrooms, including 43 general classrooms.

The school will house up to 1,100 students, Paladino said.

“We want to get the new school done right, but as quickly as possible,” he said. “It’s going to be an extraordinary addition, not just to the school district and the children, but to the community. It’s going to be designed as a community school, like most New Brunswick schools, which are open to the public for a variety of other uses.