$55 million Blanquita B. Valenti Community School ready to welcome New Brunswick students

NEW BRUNSWICK – Blanquita B. Valenti Community School, like its namesake, embodies what’s best about the city it calls home.

"She was about community, about purpose, about advocacy," said Superintendent of Schools Aubrey A. Johnson. "And this was a real community effort."

Some 800 city students will have an extra-special first day of classes Thursday when they walk into the brand-new $55 million school on Jersey Avenue for the first time.

Two years in the making, the three-story, 127,400-square-foot facility replaces Lincoln Annex School, formerly St. Peter's High School and Elementary School, which was demolished for construction of the state's first free-standing cancer hospital. It can house up to 1,000 K-8 students.

The excitement is palpable, said Valenti School Principal Ellen Treadway and the superintendent. A ribbon-cutting is scheduled for the afternoon of Sept. 6.

"It's very exciting," Treadway said. "It's a beautiful building, absolutely gorgeous. It already has a ton of vitality to it. You can feel it. When you walk in you get that energy of teachers who are excited to set up their classrooms, seeing their new furniture, seeing all the materials that they have, the technology that they have. Everything is vibrant here and you can feel that with all the teachers and staff members who have come in."

Johnson called it a "true community school." He praised Treadway, who has been with the district for about a decade, with being able to connect the Valenti school community and "bring a lot of vision to what the mindset of what Blanquita Valenti was about."

"Everyone's worked together to create the opportunity for us," Johnson said. "From the mayor (Jim Cahill) and his vision to DEVCO (New Brunswick Development Corporation) and their vision to the Board of Education and their vision. And the hospital. The vision was set forward and then everybody pulled together to make it work. I want to say now we are at the micro stage where our administrators and our teachers and our principals and everyone is now filling in those buildings. Before there were just walls. But I feel now there are promises that have come inside. And that makes a school. I'm extremely excited for what's going to happen."

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The school broke ground in spring 2021, just a few months after Blanquita B. Valenti died at age 87. A strong role model for her community, Valenti was a longtime educator, public servant and held numerous elected local and county positions while raising her family in the city. She taught Spanish at John F. Kennedy High School in Woodbridge for 32 years before her retirement.

Valenti's political and community achievements included serving as Middlesex County freeholder from 2004-2019, New Brunswick councilmember from 1990-2010 and as a member of the New Brunswick Board of Education and New Brunswick Planning Board. She also served on the board of directors for St. Peter's University Hospital and Middlesex College, was a founding and charter member of the Puerto Rican Action Board and a founding member of ASPIRA, Inc. of New Jersey.

She has a huge legacy, Johnson said, one that will be included in the school's day-to-day activities.

"In each instance, she was the first person of Latin American descent to serve in these positions," he said. "We actually have a lot of artifacts that we have collected, and we have a lot of awareness of who she was. We have been talking to the family, and we have a lot of history and legacy, and we definitely plan to incorporate that into our curriculum as well."

Valenti School is walkable for the community, Treadway noted.

"That is something that we're very excited about, being able to have our students and their families walk to school and come to functions," she said. "Even though the other school wasn't far from where we were at, we had to transport them by bus. So now they're able to walk in and it just provides a little bit more opportunities for different events and functions for families to come to."

The school features a health and wellness theme, Treadway said, which is incorporated into the curriculum.

"Health and wellness is something that we will try to put into our daily routines, and we will bring in community members and partners to kind of focus on this with families and students," she said.

According to Sarah Clarke, executive vice president of DEVCO, which developed the project, there was a group of community members, parents and staff that was integral in the early planning stages that helped identify the site and some of the design features.

"I think it really does meet with all of those factors that you would call a community school," Clarke said. "Ultimately, in its operation, it'll be a community school, but certainly as part of the development phase, the design and construction, it's also should be considered a community effort."

Among the amenities are a large outdoor playground, gymnasium, cafeteria and a multi-purpose room with a stage. There is a media center, technology lab, makerspace; biology, chemistry and hydroponics lab, Johnson said.

"I know the students are excited with the playground," Treadway said. "All of our students in grades K through 8 will have that opportunity to go to the outdoor playground for recess. The media center is beautiful. It feels like a mix of a Barnes & Noble with a makerspace area and STEAM area where we will have coding and robotics to offer."

Clarke said the building has a modern, high-tech vibe, designed to give the district the most amount of flexibility, and can host community events the way it’s designed.

"You can give community access in those spaces without having to get access to the rest of the school," she said. "So after hours or for a weekend use by different community groups. I think that is a great feature."

The school was developed in collaboration with the city, Middlesex County, RWJBarnabas Health, Rutgers Cancer Center Institute of New Jersey and DEVCO, with funding provided by RWJBarnabas as part of its cancer center project.

email: cmakin@gannettnj.com

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: New Brunswick NJ Blanquita B. Valenti Community School set to open