Renovating the Number Six School

The terrazzo floors are being cleaned, walls for the classrooms are going up, windows are being installed and the color-coded wires are being bundled as work progresses on the former Number Six School that Hebrew Academy of Long Beach (HALB) officials said could be occupied by their first through eighth grade students by the end of November. 

“It’s a big job, an 80,000-square-foot building, all the trades are working in the building,” said HALB Executive director Richard Hagler, as he guided a Herald reporter through the maze of workers, equipment and materials. 

HALB bought the 6.67-acre site, which includes the 80,170-square-foot school building for $8.5 million, along with $2.7 million that will be held as a guarantee that Lawrence would realize more than $565,000 in annual savings on what the district now spends on transportation for HALB students. Approximately 95 percent of the students who attend HALB, whose school year began Wednesday, live in or very close to the Five Towns, officials said. The sale was approved by public referendum in 2014.

The Lawrence School District spends about $10 million on transportation to transport more than 4,000 private-school students and 2,500 public school students. This year, the district has contracted for 13 buses for HALB students, according to Jeremy Feder, Lawrence’s assistant superintendent for business and transportation supervisor. 

Sidestepping supplies and manpower, Hagler said that the gymnasium’s wood floor is being preserved, there will be about 100 parking spaces and car traffic will flow in from and out to Branch Boulevard. Whatever buses are needed will be on Ibsen Street.

There will be six new basketball hoops, three ball fields and two swimming pools for the summer program. One of the pools is sloped for younger swimmers, Hagler said.