County Wants To Buy Port Monmouth School, Turn It Into Swim Center

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Monmouth County is seeking to buy Port Monmouth Elementary School building from the Middletown school district, Patch has exclusively learned.

This was mentioned very briefly at the Tuesday night Middletown Board of Education meeting, but Board President Frank Capone provided Patch with many more details:

Monmouth County has now offered to pay the Middletown school district $2.5 million for the building, said Capone. He said the district accepted their offer.

Capone said he's "happy" with the deal, assuming it goes through. Middletown also has to get approval from the NJ Department of Education to sell the building.

Capone said an appraisal done by the school district a year ago appraised the building for $2.1 million. However, a more recent appraisal done by the Monmouth County Parks System appraised the building at $2.5 million, said Tony Fiore, the vice chairman of the Monmouth Parks Board.

"I know some testing and so on has to be done on their end (Monmouth County)," said Capone.

In March 2020, just before the pandemic, the Middletown school board took the controversial vote (parents, students and teachers cried while the board members voted) to close Port Monmouth Elementary in June of that year, citing dwindling enrollment and budget cuts from Trenton. The district said the 92-year-old building needed $4 million in upgrades to keep it operational.

The 195 Port Monmouth students were transferred to New Monmouth.

Port Monmouth School, on Main Street, has sat empty ever since then, although it was used last year as the props and make-up headquarters when movie "Miranda's Victim" filmed in Middletown. Also, Middletown Township briefly considered turning it into an indoor rec center, but those plans fell through.

Then in November, Patch was first to report that the Monmouth County Park System was considering opening an indoor aquatic center somewhere in the county. One of the main places they were eying for it was Port Monmouth Elementary.

Capone said the Board and district officials are currently discussing what to do with the $2.5 million. It is a major windfall for the Middletown school district, which experiences yearly budget cuts from Trenton.

Monmouth County Parks Director Andrew Spears told Patch last fall: "The (aquatic) center, if constructed, would support competitive swim programs, including those offered by area high schools, as well as instructional and fitness aquatic programs."

Last year, residents were asked to fill out this survey to gauge their interest in an indoor swim center in Monmouth County.

Last fall: Monmouth County Could Get Indoor Aquatic Center At Former School Site (Nov. 2023)