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MATES Academy Opens Its Doors
Vocational-Technical School's Marine Academy To Broaden Student Horizons
 | | Local dignitaries and education officials were on hand to cut the ceremonial ribbon at the newly-constructed Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science, a marine and environmental science-focused expansion of the Ocean County Vocational Technical School District. |
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OCEAN COUNTY - The students are there. The doors are open. And with the cutting of the ceremonial ribbon, it's now official.
The newest addition to Ocean County's Vocational Technical School District is now complete. In fact, a full complement of students are already using the facility. That addition - the Marine
Academy of Technology and Environmental
Science, or MATES - was welcomed with open arms by local dignitaries during a ribbon-cutting ceremony held last week. The Marine Academy, they said, will help expand and enhance the targeted education the program provides.
William P. Hoey, superintendent of the county's vo-tech school system, said about 195 students are enrolled at the facility, which is essentially a fully-functional high school focused on marine and environmental science.
The 54,000 square-foot academy has the capacity to house 250 students. The building is bordered by Ocean County College's Resource Center on Cedar Bridge Road in Stafford Township and Southern Regional High School.
On hand for the ribbon-cutting were a number of elected and educational officials, including Ocean County College president Jon Larson, Stafford Mayor Carl W. Block, Academy Principal Peg Roma, Freeholders Joseph Vicari and Gerry P. Little, and others.
The Academy could not have come to fruition, they emphasized, without deep partnerships.
The construction is a result of the partnership created by the vo-tech school district, the Board of Freeholders and the college. In order to bring the academy to fruition, the college signed an agreement to sell 6.4 acres of college property to the vo-tech school for $1. The Board of Freeholders is providing $5.3 million toward the construction, while the State is providing $4 million and the votech school about $2.4 million.
'This project shows the extent of cooperation among many agencies in the county," Freeholder Joseph Vicari said.
The academy will be shared by the vo-tech students and the college, with the vo-tech students using the facility during the day and the college in the evenings.
"This will be a sophisticated vocationaltechnical facility that, along with the partnership we have formed, will expand the educational opportunities for both the children and adults of Ocean County," Hoey said. "The Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science will provide cutting edge educational tools for skilled teachers to provide an integrated and challenging curriculum focused on the Marine and Environmental Studies."
The academy provides six laboratories, including one for physics, chemistry, ecology, technology, oceanography and biology.
The academy also includes eight classrooms, two conference rooms, a media center and lecture hall, complementing its neighboring college facility.
"The students that are already enrolled in this program do outstanding work in the area of marine technology and the environment," said Freeholder director Gerry P. Little. "Providing them with this facility outfitted with all the tools they will need will only make this program even more successful."
Construction began on the facility in October 2005.
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