NEW BRUNSWICK – Blanquita B. Valenti Community School, like its namesake, embodies what’s best about the city it calls home.
“She was about community, about purpose, about advocacy,” said Superintendent of Schools Aubrey A. Johnson. “And this was a real community effort.”
Some 800 city students will have an extra-special first day of classes Thursday when they walk into the brand-new $55 million school on Jersey Avenue for the first time.
Two years in the making, the three-story, 127,400-square-foot facility replaces Lincoln Annex School, formerly St. Peter’s High School and Elementary School, which was demolished for construction of the state’s first free-standing cancer hospital. It can house up to 1,000 K-8 students.
The excitement is palpable, said Valenti School Principal Ellen Treadway and the superintendent. A ribbon-cutting is scheduled for the afternoon of Sept. 6.
“It’s…
