MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Monmouth County is still moving forward with its plans to purchase Port Monmouth Elementary School and turn it into an indoor swim center.
This was announced at the most recent Middletown school board meeting, held Tuesday night.
“We have been in touch with the county to see where they were at in the process. They had experienced a bit of delay, but they (Monmouth County) are moving forward,” school district business administrator Amy Doherty told the board at the meeting. “At this point they are doing their due diligence, environmental surveys and so on. We are still on target to finalize the sale for this fiscal year.”
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The fiscal year for the Middletown school district ends June 30, 2025. So that means the sale would go through sometime this winter or spring.
As Patch was the first to report last February, Monmouth County offered to pay the Middletown school district $2.5 million for the Port Monmouth school building, which is currently sitting empty. The school district accepted their offer last winter, BOE President Frank Capone previously said.
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That $2.5-million is still the agreed-upon sale price.
It was in November 2023 that the Monmouth County Park System revealed it was considering opening an indoor aquatic center somewhere in the county — and one of the most attractive places they were eyeing for it was the former Port Monmouth Elementary. The indoor pool would be used by high school swim teams, rented out for use by competitive swim leagues in the area, and could be used as a place for swim lessons and water fitness programs for adults and seniors.
In 2020, the Middletown school board took the controversial vote to permanently close Port Monmouth, citing dwindling enrollment. 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 has sat empty ever since. Two years ago, Middletown Township briefly considered turning it into an indoor public rec center, but those plans fell through.
The Monmouth County Parks System appraised the building at $2.5 million earlier this year.
If the $2.5-million sale goes through, it will be a major windfall for the Middletown school district, which experiences yearly budget cuts from Trenton. Stay tuned to find out what the district will do with the money.
On this topic:
County Wants To Buy Port Monmouth School, Turn It Into Swim Center (Feb. 2024)
Monmouth County Could Get Indoor Aquatic Center At Former School Site (Nov. 2023)
Here are the other top takeaways from Tuesday night’s school board meeting:
— The Middletown school district was determined to be “very good” on an assessment done by an outside firm to examine school security. The company said there are several areas the district needed to improve security, but the Board did not elaborate on what those areas are.
— A big announcement is Middletown will no longer require midterm and final exams in all courses. This was announced by superintendent Jessica Alfone. She said prior to this, students had to prepare for as many as eight midterms and eight finals. It was too much, she said, after getting feedback from students and parents. Students will now only have to take midterms and finals in core classes (classes needed to graduate) and higher-level classes.
— Also, 11th grade students with an average of 90 percent of above will now be exempt from their final exams, Alfone announced. This was a privilege previously reserved only for high school seniors.
Watch the Dec. 17 Middletown school board meeting.
This is the final meeting for 2024.
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