New Hopelawn Elementary School #10 Will Open In 2028

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — In his State of the Township March 30, Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac gave an update on the new elementary school the school district plans to build in Hopelawn.

The new Hopelawn School #10 will be built on seven acres of land at what is currently Clyde Avenue Park (90 Clyde Avenue). It will serve families in the Hopelawn/Keasbey section. The new school is scheduled to open in September 2028, McCormac said.

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Just down the street is where the old School #10 used to be located, which the Woodbridge school district decided to close 30 years ago, for reasons that are unknown.

Since then, students in Hopelawn/Keasbey have been assigned to three different elementary schools, and some kids ride a bus for more than 30 minutes twice a day to get to their school.

That old school building is now a house of worship; McCormac said in 2024 the town looked into buying it and converting it back into a school — "but it would be too expensive," he said at the time.

Now, the town and school district are working together to pay to build an entirely new school building.

The Township and Board of Education did a land swap: Woodbridge gave the school board seven acres it owned at Clyde Avenue Park and in return, the district gave the town land where the former School #14 stood, which will now become a handicapped-accessible playground. The district also gave the town unused land north and south of Lynn Crest School #22 in Colonia. That land will remain open space.

Construction of the new school — plus $30 million in major improvements planned for all the schools in the district — will cost a total of nearly $200 million, said McCormac.

The school district had to bond for the money (borrow) and Woodbridge Township is paying for some of it using revenue from Payments in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOTs.

McCormac said the Township's ability to use PILOT revenue to pay for the school construction has a "tremendous positive impact on the school district's operating budgets."

"New buildings and turf fields need little or no maintenance," McCormac said March 30 in his State of the Township. "Elected officials elsewhere do not realize what we in Woodbridge know and that is that both governing bodies (the Township and the school board) represent the same taxpayers. People get caught up in who pays for what instead of evaluating what is being paid for ... We and the Board realize that the old saying is true. A community is known by the schools it keeps."

First report on the new Hopelawn School #10: Woodbridge Plans To Build New Elementary School In Hopelawn (2024)