Phillipsburg school board OKs revised plans for new Phillipsburg High School

PHILLIPSBURG | The school district's longtime struggle for a new high school continues to move forward as officials Monday approved the facility's revised plans.

Members of the public as well as sending district officials looked on as the Phillipsburg Board of Education approved the new schematics.

The design team for the new high school remains largely as it was in 2005 when the now-defunct New Jersey Schools Construction Corp. ran out of funding for the project. The project is now in the hands of the state Schools Development Authority.

Assistant Superintendent George Chando said the delay on the project has had its advantages.

"It's really allowed us to rethink some things," he said.

Authority Senior Planner Neil Mapp said the project is fully funded and on an aggressive schedule.

The biggest revisions in the now 336,000-square-foot project are in the academic wing, according to Jeff Venezia, architect with the Design Ideas Group, of New Brunswick, N.J.

The new layout -- about 38,000 square feet less than originally proposed -- better reflects the school's programs, Chando said. Designers cut some classroom areas and community spaces while expanding others such as special education classrooms and science labs.

Chando said the most critical change was correcting the "classroom imbalance" in the original plan. The three-story building will have more classrooms on the first floor to accommodate the mandatory core classes for freshmen and sophomores. The third floor's classrooms will mirror the more specific needs of juniors and seniors.

Square footage for common spaces, including the cafeteria, has also been expanded, Chando said.

The original $174.4 million price tag made the school the most expensive of 53 projects approved for construction last year by the Schools Development Authority. But that is subject to change with the revisions and Chando said the new cost is still being adjusted.

Groundbreaking is slated for June followed by bidding in July and construction in October, Venezia said. The new school would open in 2013 for 1,750 students.