Middletown School District Formally Accepts $2.5M Port Monmouth Sale

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — At the Middletown school board meeting Tuesday night (watch it here), business administrator Amy Doherty announced the district formally accepted Monmouth County's offer to purchase the Port Monmouth Elementary School from the district.

Monmouth County offered to pay the Middletown school district $2.5 million for the building and land, which is currently sitting unused. As Patch was the first media outlet to report way back in November, Monmouth County Parks Department would like to turn it into an indoor aquatic center, or possibly an indoor rec center.

The NJ state Department of Education still has to sign off on the sale, and Doherty said the district is "going through the process now."

After the sale goes through, the county would first have to tear down Port Monmouth Elementary, then build entirely new from the ground up.

"The school building will be demolished. It cannot be repurposed for any type of recreation facility," Parks Director Andrew Spears told this Patch reporter on Feb. 9.

Any opening date is several years in the future.

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