Setting the Final Piece of Steel a Time to Mark Workers’ Efforts, Students’ Bright Futures

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ – The guys with tool belts and reflective orange vests were taking a rare, but well-deserved break from toiling away under the New Brunswick sun.

Since the first column was set in place on May 26, they have assembled 700 tons of steel and poured 2,500 square yards of concrete on this patch of earth on Jersey Avenue, and on Thursday, July 21, it was time to put the final steel beam in place.

As much as the topping off ceremony was a time for the local leaders and officials to look ahead to a day next fall when the Blanquita B. Valenti Community School is scheduled to open for some 1,100 students to study everything from psychology to Shakespeare, it was also a time to reflect how fast the skeleton of the school had been fit together.