School Expansion will include Space for Emergency Management Training

A groundbreaking is planned this spring for an addition at the Newark Tech High School, featuring an open, flexible and highly adaptable lab to teach technology and act as a new home- base for self-motivated Newark Tech students.

The official date of the groundbreaking will be announced in the coming weeks.
 
The architect, Greg Comito of Newark-based Comito Associates, said the new Technology Enhanced Accelerated Learning Center (TEAL) is designed to provide work zones that can be changed to fit various classroom needs with shifting seating, equipment and storage systems. The TEAL Center, he said, will accommodate “think tanks,” individual learning booths and other flexible and varied classroom settings.
 
The new glass pavilion will front on Market Street in Newark across from the Courts Complex, the home of many recent improvements and building beautification projects over recent years.
 
Through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, FEMA and the Essex County Sheriff’s Office , the project also includes a new vocational education concept to build an emergency management training space. Students will learn how to respond to disasters using this specialized 3,300-square-foot learning laboratory and a “situation room” where training models unfold on a video wall synced to students individual computers and work groups..
 
“In disasters, there are errors of execution and errors of imagination,” said Mike Panella, superintendent of the Essex County Vocational Technical Schools, which includes Newark Tech. “9-11 was an error of imagination; we just never thought it could happen.  Working with Homeland Security and FEMA, our students will be taught to think of what could happen, not just have information poured into them.”
 
The complete project, to open to students this September, will be a showcase piece for the vo-tech school system. It will serve 700 students in Newark Tech, a grades 9-12 school.
 
 “The state Department of Education is regarding this initiative as a model for the future configuration and usage of instructional space,” Comito said. “This addition is designed to feature state-of-the-art technology to assist students to problem solve using mathematics, science, social studies and language arts learning.”