The sun was shining bright over the district, as administrators, and former and current board of education members held a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the start of construction of Junior-Senior High School’s new athletic complex. Representatives from Park East Construction and The LandTek Group, Inc. including LandTek Vice President of Public Relations and Marketing former New York Jets player Marty Lyons, also attended the event.
This is part of the district’s bond project that was successfully passed by community members in November 2019. Thanks to funding through Living With the Bay, construction on a 750-bulkhead began in November 2020 and was completed this April. Now, the work has begun to transform the fields into a state-of-the-art athletic complex, which will be enjoyed not only by district students but the community as well. This will include adding synthetic turf and drainage system, concrete block dugouts, backstops and fencing for new baseball and softball fields, new bleachers and a press box, perimeter safety netting around the track, 10 pole lighting around entire field area and more.
Board of Education President Dominick Vulpis said that although COVID-19 has brought a lot of changes to the world, the beginning of this work has been a positive outcome for the district. “It’s a beautiful thing to see this dream come true,” he said. “This was worth waiting for and will be a great opportunity for the students and the community.”
Former Board of Education President Keith Gamache and former board trustee Patti Nicoletti both worked on the bond committee and shared their excitement on the project coming to fruition. “I appreciate the existing board inviting all of us here because it has been a long project in the making so it’s nice to see it,” Mr. Gamache said. “I’m really looking forward to coming down and actually running on the track myself so it’s very exciting.” Mrs. Nicoletti added that the completion of this project “is going to add a lot of value, not only to our students’ experience but also to community involvement.”
Superintendent of Schools Lisa Ruiz shared her enthusiasm by thanking the community for their support throughout this process. “This is a wonderful step forward to be able to offer our students and our community the services and facilities that they deserve. We are looking forward to the continuation of this construction and we’re very excited to see the end result realized in the fall.”
As the work progresses into the spring and summer months, a ribbon cutting is slated to be held in the early fall 2021-2022 school year.