Union City – The New Jersey Schools Development Authority (SDA) joined Mayor and State Senator Brian Stack, Union City School District Officials, state and local officials today for the groundbreaking of the new Grade 7 to 9 School in Union City. With an active construction site bustling behind, today’s event ceremoniously marked the start of construction of a new school that will help to reduce overcrowding throughout the District.

“As we stand alongside our partners today, together we break ground for a state-of-the-art school that will provide Union City students with an educational facility that will help prepare them for high school and the future,” said SDA CEO Manuel Da Silva. “The new and renovated facilities delivered by the SDA in communities such as Union City are vital to ensuring all New Jersey students have access to the resources needed to succeed. We look forward to our continued partnership with the school district, city, and construction partners as this project advances through the construction phase.”

“With the help and support of Governor Murphy and our Mayor and State Senator Brian P. Stack, we are honored that this SDA funded new school facility will provide high quality education for future generations of our Union City students,” said Silvia Abbato, Superintendent of Union City Schools.

The new school will be an approximately 132,000 square-foot, six-story facility designed to educate a maximum of 936 students in seventh to ninth grades. In addition to general classrooms and science labs, the school will include specialized educational spaces such as three art rooms, a stem/robotics lab, a hydroponics lab, a technology lab, vocal music room, a dance studio, a rooftop environmental science lab with an outdoor growing area, a media center, a gymnasium, and a cafetorium with a stage/instrumental room.

The $93.7 million state investment for this 21st century educational facility will significantly reduce district-wide overcrowding while supporting more than 800 construction and other jobs over the course of the project.

The school will be built 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. Dobco, Inc. was awarded a design-build contract for the design and construction of the new school. As part of the design-build contract, Dobco is working with NK Architects, P.A. on the design. Anser Advisory is managing the project.

As a result of SDA's commitment to building energy-efficient buildings that consider the surrounding environment, this school will be built to receive LEED (United States Green Building Council – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver certification.

Once completed, the school will be the sixth Capital Project completed by the SDA in Union City since the inception of the school construction program. The SDA previously invested more than $270 million in completed projects in the Union City School District.

About the New Jersey Schools Development Authority

The SDA is the State agency responsible for fully funding and managing the new construction, modernization and renovation of school facilities projects in 31 SDA Districts. Its current portfolio of active projects is valued at approximately $1 billion – including the Capital Project portfolio, emergent projects and Regular Operating District grants. Since the program’s inception, the SDA has provided funding for and management oversight of more than 880 completed school facilities projects in SDA Districts and has executed more than 5,400 grants for Regular Operating Districts throughout the State of New Jersey. For more information about the SDA, please visit our website at: www.njsda.gov or follow us on social media at: Facebook; Instagram; LinkedIn; or Twitter.