MKA hopes for new primary school cafetorium, parking spaces

By ERIN ROLL
roll@montclairlocal.news

Montclair Kimberley Academy is hoping to embark on a construction project over the next year.
The school wants to build a new cafetorium, as well as additional parking space, at its Brookside campus on Orange Road.
The school held an information session last week for residents living near the school. The session included a presentation by architect Peter Bachmann from JCJ Architecture, which is working with the school on assembling the preliminary designs, and Mark Manion from Wohlsen Construction.
The school had not yet made an official application for the project to the township planning board as of April 19, and the exact designs had not yet been finalized. It is expected, however, that if the project is approved, construction could begin around spring break 2018 and be completed by early 2019.
The Brookside campus serves grades Pre-K through third grade.
The cafetorium will seat 350 people when it is in auditorium mode. It will have a larger, fully outfitted kitchen, and there will be an expanded reception area and admissions office for the school.
The project will not increase student enrollment, since the building does not include new classroom space.
One of the concerns outlined at the meeting was the long car lines on Orange Road as parents and caregivers wait to pick up students in the afternoon.
The school’s parking area can only accommodate a line of 19 vehicles. With a reconstructed parking lot, the school hopes to increase that number to 48, and the number of available parking spaces to 91.
The school also hopes to plant a green buffer of trees between the property and the houses on Warren Street, which is on the property’s northern edge.