Vineland, NJ (April 23, 2005) - For the second time in two weeks, residents of this Cumberland County community turned out to celebrate the start of construction of a new school - the first new schools in Vineland in 26 years, with a third set to get under way next month.

Today's groundbreaking ceremony for the new Vineland Elementary School #1 was conducted by representatives of Vineland School District and the New Jersey Schools Construction Corporation (SCC). The SCC is funding and managing the $15.6 million project under New Jersey's unprecedented $8.6 billion school construction program. The event was attended by students, teachers, parents and residents, along with local and state officials. Due to the forecast of inclement weather, the ceremony was held at Vineland High School South Auditorium on E. Chestnut Avenue instead of the school site at Lincoln Avenue and Menantico Road.

The new 74,000-square-foot elementary school will provide state-of-the-art educational opportunities for 556 students in Kindergarten through 5th grade in this South Jersey city. It will include 4 Kindergarten classrooms; 20 general classrooms; 8 resource classrooms; 3 special education classrooms; classrooms for speech, science, enrichment, music, art and computers;

On April 9, the SCC broke ground for a new $26.2 million middle school at Mill and Almond roads. Groundbreaking for Vineland's Center City elementary school is scheduled for May 21.

Vineland opened its last new school in 1979.

John F. Spencer, Chief Executive Officer of SCC, said, "The school projects in Vineland are examples of the strides that the SCC - in step with district officials and the building trades - is making toward providing top-flight facilities for our students statewide."

The SCC was initiated in 2002 to streamline implementation of the largest public construction program ever undertaken by New Jersey and one of the largest of its kind in the nation.