New $8 Million Center Will Expand Struggling Students' Possibilities

An old warehouse on Finderne Avenue has been torn down, and soon construction on a new $8 million center aimed at giving employable skills to low-functioning students will begin.

When it opens, Somerset County Educational Services Commission Superintendent Harold Dunsavage said a seven-year campaign to provide true vocational skills to enable the commission's students to gain employment in grocery stores, janitorial or landscaping companies will begin bearing fruit.

"These students don't really have a place to go for those vocational skills," Dunsavage, a passionate advocate for the students who are only able to advance to about fifth-grade school work, said. "It's a very unique project."

The commission's Career Center is a collaboration of private and public entities Dunsavage lobbied for support—when completed about September 2014, the center will include a gymnasium for use by commission students, facilities to train the students in landscaping and janitorial work lead by instructors from the Somerset County Vo-Tech and a full-functioning ShopRite grocery store.

"And ShopRite wants to employ the students as well," he added.

Dunsavage said the center will be able to train about 72 students at a time, and will enable many county school districts to save on the expense of having to send older students to schools often outside of the county.

The program is designed for students classified as "low functioning," but Dunsavage said the program could grow to include special education students as well. 

The Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders are providing the financial backing, and the Educational Services Commission will be providing instructors and coordinating the programs offered.

Dunsavage said some low-level discussion with Raritan Valley Community College are also underway to add more choices for students who have historically been underserved.