East Gym Bleacher Demolition At Brick High School May Start Next Week: School Officials

BRICK, NJ — Work to replace the decades-old bleachers and gym floor in the East Gym at Brick Township High School may begin as soon as next week, Brick Township School District officials said Thursday afternoon.

James Edwards, business administrator for the Brick Township School District, said purchase orders for part of the project have been issued through the Middlesex Regional Educational Services Commissions Co-op bid and work is anticipated to begin Tuesday.

The work to address the critical issues in the gym is starting a few weeks later than hoped; a bid on the project was rejected by the board on July 7 because it significantly exceeded the amount the district had budgeted.

Repairs are underway on the parking lots at Lake Riviera High School and behind Brick Township High School, after bids for those projects were approved at the same meeting, interim Superintendent Thomas Gialanella said.

"Our hope for the (East Gym) bid was to do the work over the summer, so students and staff would have only minor adjustments" in schedules, Gialanella said. "Since that is no longer possible we have contacted vendors off the state-approved list to begin work late in the summer and the fall."

"We are not sure we can complete the whole project within the current budget," Gialanella said, so the work will be pared down to the highest priorities.

Edwards said the bleachers and the gym floor — considered the two most critical pieces of the project — will be done now. The school board approved use of the co-op back in June, so purchase orders for the work already have been released to the vendors, Edwards said.

Thursday night at the school board meeting, Edwards elaborated, saying the work will include the bleachers and the floor, removing a long-defunct and no longer needed sliding divider wall, and replacing the fixed basketball hoops with moveable ones that allow the hoops to be raised when not in use.

"This will cause more disruption then we had planned but we can still have it completed by the beginning of winter season," Gialanella said Thursday afternoon.

The initial plan also included a thorough cleaning of the rafters, painting of the gym and replacement of banners that commemmorate athletic accomplishments in several sports. On Thursday evening Edwards said the district had not been able to find a painting company through the co-op, and if that cost exceeds $40,000, they will have to go through the bidding process again.

Walter Campbell, a former board member who is a candidate for the school board again this year, asked Thursday night whether the district had considered doing the painting in-house, and Edwards said the maintenance crews already have an extensive list of work to do and simply don't have the time to do the painting.

The project is long overdue. The bleachers, which were installed when that portion of Brick High School was constructed in the 1960s as a middle school, are cracked in some places, and the mechanisms used to expand and close them no longer work and repair parts are no longer available, officials have said.

The floor has gaps between the floorboards in some places; in others, it has deep scrapes and chunks of the clearcoat finish are gone, in photos that were shared by the district during budget hearings.

"We are not sure we can complete the whole project within the current budget," Gialanella said, so the work will be pared down to the highest priorities.

"Credit should go to the administration at the high school for working on a plan to provide a safe environment for students and staff while this work is being done," he said.

At the board meeting where the bids were opened, Campbell suggested the district utilize the co-op to get the work done without further delays, according to a report in the Brick Times. Campbell told the Brick Times the district used the co-op when it needed to replace the lockers at Brick High School several years ago.

The front parking lot at Lake Riviera is being revamped to remove a concrete divider between the parking lot and the building that creates one driving lane in front of the school. It also will create a diagonal parking area for buses that will be at the north end of the parking lot. Student dropoff is being redesigned as well, all to improve student safety.

At Brick Township High School, the rear parking area, where concrete curbing was crumbling and potholes existed, is being redone as well.

"That work should be done before the beginning of the school year," Gialanella said.

Cracked, warped seating on the bleachers in the East Gym at Brick Township High School. Photo courtesy Brick Township School District