The four completed school projects represent a total state investment of more than $306 million. The schools opened include the Madison Avenue Elementary School in Irvington, the Sonia Sotomayor School No. 21 in Passaic City, Rose M. Lopez Elementary School in Perth Amboy and the Trenton Central High School.

All of the new schools incorporate the guidelines developed by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) known as the “Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (“LEED®”) program in order to achieve maximum energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in the design of schools. All four schools are on track to achieve LEED certification, with three of the buildings expected to achieve LEED Silver certification.

“The opening of these four new schools demonstrates SDA’s commitment to positively impacting New Jersey’s students, delivering facilities that will provide educational opportunities for thousands of students now and for years to come,” said SDA Interim CEO Manuel Da Silva. “We know that quality educational facilities allow students to focus on learning. The new schools will ensure that students have the facilities they need to achieve academic success.”

All of the SDA’s 2019 school openings are projects delivered using a design-build approach. The design-build method differs from the traditional design-bid-build approach by allowing the SDA to contract with one firm for both design and construction of a school facilities project. The design-build method also allows for some design and construction activities to proceed concurrently through phased advancement, an approach that potentially allows for improvement upon the original overall schedule.