Front Page July 7, 2004

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.