The Kearny Board of Education is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the construction and dedication of Kearny High School at its current location, 336 Devon Street, and the public is invited to participate in the celebration early next month.
The building’s original cornerstone notes the school’s construction began in 1921. and visit to the front entrance lobby provides access to the original dedication plaque which notes the building’s dedication in 1922.
The first high school in Kearny, PS No. 4, was built on Kearny Avenue in 1894 and was renamed the Clara Barton School when the new high school opened in its current location.
The current school’s stadium was completed in 1925, and the bricks from the original high school were used in building the walls surrounding the stadium.
In 1940, an addition costing $400,000 was added and in 1974, another addition was completed at a cost of $5 million. This addition, now referred to as the South Building, provided new music and art classrooms, a new gymnasium, locker rooms, classrooms and garage parking.
The school is divided by a plaza that connects the North and South buildings.
In 2017, through funding by the FAA and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the board and contractors completed a $44 million addition and renovation to the high school, bringing the campus into the 21st century.
A new HVAC system, WiFi, upgraded lighting and intercom system, along with the addition of 19 new classrooms that include a state of the art culinary facility, broadcast studio, dance studio and expanded cafeteria were added.
The public is invited to join the district in celebrating 100 years of educating Kearny students on Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022, between 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Student performances and exhibits will highlight Saturday’s celebration.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.