Robert Menendez beamed as a West New York School elementary school was named after him this afternoon.
"I can think of no better tribute than having an elementary school named in my honor," the U.S. senator said at a ceremony at the 55th Street school, which previously was known as School 3. "It's where it all began for me and I know my mother, who has passed away, would have been proud."
The name change was approved by the West New York Board of Education in June, at the same time the board voted to rename School 4 for Rep. Albio Sires, a former mayor of West New York. School 4 was officially renamed on Oct. 4.
During a speech to students today, Menendez encouraged students to work hard to achieve their dreams.
"Dreams can come true, but they only come true with hard work and sacrifice," said Menendez.
When he asked a crowd of sixth-graders sitting in the back of the auditorium what they dreamed of becoming some day, they shouted out career aspirations: CIA agent, firefighter, doctor, lawyer, policeman and mechanical engineer.
"The thing you need to know is that they're all possible," he told the students.
Toward the end of his speech, Menendez emphasized the importance of investing in education in order to empower students to go further.
"Who knows, one of the sixth-graders here may one day become the next Stephen Spielberg, start the next Dreamworks, the next Pixar Studios," he said. "Public education has always given us the best and brightest and turned dreams into reality, so let it begin here in West New York."
Menendez is a co-sponsor of the Fix America's Schools Today Act, which would provide $30 billion for public school and community college construction projects.
"Here in New Jersey, it would bring more than $518 million in investments to support K-12 school infrastructure and help support and create 6,700 jobs," Menendez said.
A host of elected officials, including Congressman Sires, Mayors Steve Fulop (Jersey City), Mark Smith (Bayonne), Felix Roque (West New York), Richard Turner (Weehawken), Luis Quintana (Newark), Hudson County Freeholder Chairman Anthony Romano, Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise and Assembly Speaker-elect Vincent Prieto attended the event.