District gets possession of new Trenton Central H.S.
TRENTON >> The new Trenton Central High School is now in the hands of local educators.
The Trenton Board of Education on Tuesday announced it has officially received possession of the new TCHS from the New Jersey Schools Development Authority.
SDA, which financed and has overseen the $155 million construction project, was previously expected to deliver the new building to Trenton Public Schools back in June, but the embattled agency fell behind schedule while weathering a public relations nightmare.
Lizette Delgado-Polanco, former CEO of SDA, failed to follow proper procedures in the SDA’s hiring and reorganization process and ultimately placed unqualified workers on the payroll of an organization that was running out of money, according to an investigative report that exposed SDA’s major shortcomings.
Key stakeholders earlier this month wanted to celebrate the opening of the newly built TCHS, but the planned event for Aug. 8 had to be canceled because SDA at that point still had not handed over the keys and occupancy rights, district officials said in an Aug. 6 press release.
Now armed with a certificate of occupancy, the district “will host multiple events at the new facility to celebrate the momentous occasion,” the school board said Tuesday in its press release. “Details of the opening events will be forthcoming.”
“We are excited that the project is coming to completion,” Mayor Reed Gusciora said Tuesday of the new TCHS. “There were definitely last-minute details the SDA had to complete, but this is exciting the school is now in charge of its destiny.”
At-large Councilman Jerell Blakeley, who serves as city council’s liaison to the Trenton Board of Education, on Tuesday also applauded the SDA for delivering the 350,000-square-foot learning facility to the Trenton Public Schools District.
“It’s been a mighty long road to this point,” he said. “I am very excited that the young people of Trenton will have a high school building that is worthy of their aspirations and of their presence. With a new high school and new leadership of the school district, this is a real good opportunity for us to move in a better direction as a community.”
Trenton Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Fred McDowell, who is resigning effective Aug. 30, on Tuesday issued a statement saying the new high school for students in grades 10 through 12 “will serve as a powerful tool for generations of Trentonians as we strive to ensure all students are prepared to succeed in their choice of college or career.”
When new TCHS students begin classes on Sept. 9, they will enter a state-of-the-art campus featuring a media center, auditorium, 2,000seat gymnasium, auxiliary gym, cardio fitness room, weight room, outdoor amphitheater and an outdoor dining area adjoining the cafeteria.
“The Trenton Board of Education is excited and eagerly anticipating the opening of the brand new Trenton Central High School,” Board President Addie Daniels-Lane said Tuesday in a press statement. “This new school represents an opportunity to offer our students unparalleled learning experiences in an environment that will support them in becoming truly ‘future ready.’ This is certainly a reason for our district, and our community to not only celebrate, but unite around the common cause of providing the best educational opportunities for all of our students.”
Blakeley, a 2005 Trenton High graduate and former educator in the district, said he is “really excited” that TCHS educators “will have a facility that will support their work rather than detract from it as the prior facility did.”
The Trenton school board in October 2014 voted to demolish the former Trenton Central High School. The original facility, which opened in 1932, was torn down in a slow, piecemeal fashion in 2015 and 2016 as state legislators and community activists pushed former Gov. Chris Christie’s administration to make a meaningful investment in Trenton’s crumbling schools infrastructure.
In its final years of existence, the original TCHS was notorious for mold, leaking roofs and crumbling walls, hardly a conducive environment for learning.
“I think it is really important to appreciate and remember the role of the community activists who fought so long and so hard to make this new high school a reality,” Blakeley said. “A new building by itself won’t fix what ails the educational system in Trenton, so education at its best works when all stakeholders collaborate and work together, and I look forward to this new building serving as a forum for strong stakeholder partnerships that our community so desperately needs.”