Central Regional Bathrooms Get Major Upgrade at Little Cost

Students and visitors at Central Regional High School will find bathrooms that have been significantly redesigned for the first time in 50 years.

Officials at a recent Board of Education meeting lauded the project, which was done completely in-house in less than three months at a cost of $5,000.

“This high school is 50 years old, so there are a few things that need to be replaced,” said Central Regional School District Business Administrator Kevin O’Shea.

“Instead of hiring an outside contractor, we decided to have a maintenance person exclusively for renovations.”

That person is Antonio Visaggio, who started on Aug. 3, 2010 as the district’s special project’s coordinator.

“He has saved us over $30,000 as of January 2011,” O'Shea said.

O’Shea said the district had received a number of complaints from the public, teachers, students and Board of Education members about the quality of the original bathrooms.

“It’s not that they were dirty, they were so old the dirt was ingrained in the tiles and sinks,” he said.

The bathroom near the music room, which is frequented often after school due to band and theater  rehearsals, is of particular interest, O'Shea said.

To fix the bathroom up, the floors were acid washed, the walls re-tiled, and the sinks, mirrors, toilets and vents were all replaced. A new hand blower was installed as well as new light fixtures with motion sensors to save on energy costs.

The feature that gets the most attention is the skylight on the bathroom ceiling, Visaggio said.

The infrastructure for the skylight was already in place, but for whatever reason was tiled over in the old bathrooms.

Visaggio said he simply installed glass tile instead when he was doing the renovations.

“The sun reflects off the glass and it enhances the light,” he said.

Building and Grounds Supervisor Samuel Pepe said the project will finish up within its $5,000 budget. If an outside contractor had been used, the cost would likely have been $24,000 to complete the renovations, he said.

So after years of complaints, how have Central Regional’s 1,300 students reacted to the improvements?

“We get rave reviews now,” said Pepe.

“When I am working and students pass by I get a lot of good comments on how beautiful it looks,” Visaggio said.