The Hoboken Planning Board heard a presentation on a new $241 million high school plan that features a variety of unique classrooms during last night’s meeting.
By Daniel Ulloa/Hudson County View
No vote or public comment was taken on the plan since it was merely a courtesy review, though There will be time allotted for public comment at Tuesday’s board of education meeting.
The BOE has said a new high school is needed to maintain pace with school enrollment combined with the fact that many Hoboken school buildings are very old, coming out in support of the January 25th referendum for the project.
The current high school, located at 800 Clinton St. and built in 1962, is the newest school building in the Mile Square City.
The proposed new Hoboken High School would be built on the site of the high school’s John F. Kennedy Stadium at 1000 Jefferson St.
Prepared by Erik Wood of Mount Vernon Group Architects, its construction is estimated to cost $241 million.
The project would be four stories tall and approximately 374,700 square feet with a 110 car spot garage underneath the school that will allow the first floor of the school to be elevated to comply with FEMA regulations.
The proposed Hoboken High School would have 27 general classrooms, 11 specialized learning rooms, and six self-contained special education rooms.
Additionally, there would be eight science labs with associated prep rooms including a biomedical science lab, an engineering sciences lab, a hydroponics lab, science on a sphere classroom, a print media classroom, and an IT lab.
In terms of the arts, there will be three music rooms with practice and ensemble rooms, two art rooms, a theater arts classroom, a set design shop, an 800 seat auditorium, a 295-seat blackbox theater, a culinary arts classroom with an associated bistro, a collaborative learning and activity center, a learning commons area, a cafeteria, and a full-service kitchen.
The high school would also contain a gymnasium, an auxiliary gym, a weight room, a wellness studio, an occupational therapy and physical therapy room, and associated administration and support facilities.
Furthermore, an ice rink, an indoor swimming pool, two tennis courts, a six-lane track along the multi-purpose turf/football field on the roof will be built with the necessary locker rooms and concession stands.
A community room within the new high school will be accessible to community groups after school to enable neighborhood integration and conserve space in Hoboken.
The facility will also include highly efficient lighting and HVAC systems to reduce energy consumption, a solar panel system producing on-site renewable energy, and highly efficient plumbing fixtures that will reduce annual water consumption. In addition, a percentage of recycled materials will be used in the construction.
A stormwater system to cope with flooding beneath the building was included to make the building environmentally friendly.
A transportation impact study was done which found that there would not be “a significant degradation of overall intersections” and “would not result in significant impact to traffic flow on the streets and intersections surrounding the proposed high school,” according to documents presented by the planning board.
It also found the garage proposed would help address parking concerns.
Construction of the new high school would enable the Hoboken Board of Education to move the middle school from the Demarest School into the existing high school on Clinton Street.
That would free up classroom space at the Demarest School for Pre-K and Elementary School programs.
Wood presented a 3D video of the layout of the design of the school and all its unique features including spacious hallways the specialized classrooms, and the proposed unique facilities.
According to New Jersey Department of Education statistics from October 2020, the district had 2,667 full-time students, and 381 full-time special education students for a total of 3,048 students.
There will be at least one more meeting on the proposed new high school before the referendum next month, according to BOE President Sharyn Angley.