Bayonne High School could be the home to a new technical education building. The school district has partnered with the Hudson County Schools of Technology (HCST) and Hudson County to apply for a grant that would fund the project.
The Bayonne Board of Education voted to adopt a resolution approving a memorandum of agreement with HCST to put the plan in motion. At the Jan. 26 meeting, School Business Administrator Daniel Castles addressed the details.
According to Castles, the resolution approved an agreement among the Board of Education, Hudson County, and HCST to apply for a grant from the Securing Our Children’s Future Bond Act. The memorandum approves a lease agreement between the Board of Education and HCST.
The district will lease the land near Bayonne High School currently occupied by two tennis courts to HCST, Castles said. On the land, HCST will construct a 36,000-square-foot, two-story facility as part of the expansion of Career Technical Education programs at the high school.
The facility would house additional classrooms, industry shops, and a cosmetology room. According to Castles, it also calls for renovating parts of the current career technical education classrooms leased by HCST in the high school.
Bursting at the seams
The new facility would be open to Bayonne High School students as well as HCST students taking vocational classes. The school district is bursting at the seams. The new building would remedy the space issue.
Castles said that all this would come at no cost to the district. The grant would fund most of the project, and the county would pay for the rest. The plans are tentative because the district needs to be selected to receive the funding before construction can begin.
“This is an opportunity that doesn’t come along very often, to construct that size building at no cost to the district,” Castles said.
The district will build new tennis courts if it wins the grant, and HCST will construct the technical education facility.
The next Board of Education meeting is Feb. 23. For more information, go to bboed.org.
For updates on this and other stories, check www.hudsonreporter.com and follow us on Twitter @hudson_reporter. Daniel Israel can be reached at disrael@hudsonreporter.com.
