Media center opens at Brookdale Elementary

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Brookdale Elementary School unveiled a new media center with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, Sept. 9. The center is tucked away on the basement level. Last year it had been on the first floor but that area is now two first-grade classrooms.

“This is not an isolation,” Principal Joseph Fleres said of the location, at the ceremony, “but an extension.”

Media specialist Ellen Luca was especially pleased with the new facility.
“This is beyond my wildest dreams,” she said..

Luca credited Fleres for his vision and the Brookdale Home and School Association for its support. She singled out Vanessa Domine and Mollie Smith, two home-and-school parents who helped to design the center. Both women have backgrounds in design. A nice effect was the individual framing of about a dozen opening lines from well-known children’s stories. They had been hung on a wall.

Luca also acknowledged Joe Carretta, the Bloomfield School District facilities manager.

“This room was a blank canvas,” she said while thanking Carretta, who was present.

Also in attendance was Bloomfield Schools Supervisor Sal Goncalves, Bloomfield Board of Education President Jill Fischman, BOE member Shane Berger and Brookdale H&S Association President Jennifer Guidea. Guidea said the HS&A provided the room with furnishings, decorations and makerspace materials.

Fifth- and sixth-graders helped to make the move as did members of the Bloomfield High School boys’ and girls’ soccer teams. The effort was no doubt appreciated. The new media center has about 6,000 books, Luca said, and he read the first lines from one of the books. It was titled, “A Child of Books.” She said the lines gave her chills. “‘I am a child of books,” she said. “They help me grow and learn.’”

The room where the new center is located was a small gymnasium when the school was first built, according to Luca. Five years ago it became a classroom. With changing times, It has again has been repositioned.

“We are looking toward making this a place where teachers can come and work on projects that are curriculum based,” she said.

Fleres said the Brookdale student populations, last year and this year, are comparable. The additional classroom space that was created in the former media center, he said, was only in anticipation of any possible enrollment increase. On the day of the ceremony, there were 351 students enrolled.