Referendum work nearing end for Mat-Ab

BY DAN NEWMAN
Staff Writer

MATAWAN — The Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District’s school renovation plan, which has been in the works since a 2002 referendum was passed, is near completion as expected, and is currently under budget.

Each of the four elementary schools — Lloyd Road, Ravine Drive, Strathmore and Cliffwood Avenue — have repaired roofs. The windows at Cliffwood Avenue and Lloyd Road have been replaced, while Strathmore and Ravine Drive should be completed by the start of the school year.

According to Laura Venter, business administrator for the district, only two of the projects will still be outstanding at the start of the upcoming school year. Matawan Regional High School is undergoing classroom improvements that are slated to be completed by October, while work at Matawan Avenue Middle School, which consists of a new gymnasium and new classrooms, is scheduled to be done by October 2005. This also happens to be the state-mandated deadline for the district to stop using trailer classrooms, which are currently being used because of overcrowding at the school.

The $36.8 million referendum, passed on Sept. 24, 2002, looks like it will be money well spent as all of the schools in the district are being renovated.

"The last time our district went through renovations like this was back in the 90s, but the board passed a much smaller referendum at that time, and so while the work got done, the project was on a much smaller scale," Superintendent of Schools Bruce Quinn said. "This time, the budget for the project allows for the work to get done more completely. Last time, the project was going over budget, and so things had to be scaled back a bit."

The construction mangers for the project, Stuart Seidman and Bill Skillman, from Hill International, Marlton, have been working with the district since the planning phase of the project in December 2002, and have been in constant communication with board members, something that has helped immensely, according to Quinn.

"Although there is a very large budget for this project, the district as well as Hill International have been keeping tabs on the situation since this whole thing started, and that has helped. When everybody is paying attention to what is going on, there should be no problems at all," Quinn said.