Manalapan-Englishtown Middle School - Construction From 2005 To 2007

Construction From 2005 To 2007

During the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 school year, construction took place at MEMS. The construction took place from June 2005 to September 2006. This resulted in the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year being spent at various elementary schools and the first day of school being canceled because the school had failed to receive a Certificate of Occupancy before the school year began. The year began on September 12, 2006 instead of September 11, as originally planned.

Each eighth grade community was paired with a seventh grade community and sent to an elementary school for nine days in September 2006; in total, six elementary schools were used as hosts to the middle school students. There, classes took place in the elementary school classrooms and gyms; there was one class per classroom and four classes per gym, which resulted in confusion and not much learning. These three weeks were half-day sessions from 7:25 AM to 11:35 AM. Students had to take shuttle buses and then regular buses, which, in the first few days, took up large amounts of time because they had to stop at every elementary school. After three days, the bus rides became shorter as kinks in the system were smoothed out. After the Certificate of Occupancy was received, the MEMS students moved from their various elementary schools to the newly renovated MEMS.

The elementary schools used were Clark Mills Elementary School, Pine Brook Elementary School, Taylor Mills Elementary School, Milford Brook Elementary School, Wemrock Brook Elementary School, and Lafayette Mills Elementary School. Alpha and Theta went to Taylor Mills, Beta and Zeta went to Wemrock Brook, Gamma and Kappa went to Pine Brook, Delta went to Milford Brook, Sigma went to Clark Mills, and Omega and Lambda went to Lafayette Mills. The elementary school students' schedules remained as it normally would, though they did not have gym classes and some classes might have been placed together as one temporarily to give classrooms to the middle schoolers. Sigma and Delta got whole elementary schools to themselves because they are the two largest communities.

After construction, there were twenty-seven new classrooms, air conditioning throughout the school, a new courtyard, two new science laboratories, one new computer laboratory, an expansion of the cafeteria, an expansion of the nurse's office, an expansion of the art classrooms, and a new gym.

The school underwent some criticism for its delayed opening, its system of housing different communities at elementary schools, and the sometimes poor bus system while the students were at the elementary schools. However, while some thought that the school handled the situation poorly, others believed that the administration did the best it could under the situation.