Justin Leff and Avi Sholkoff

Monorail Consultants 

Finally, the days of the tortuous 0.2 mile walk from the Upper School to the Middle School are over. Transportation Director Cynthia Patterson and Facilities Manager Reggie Rios have decided to build a monorail adjacent to the Upper Parking Lot. “We realized that students were lazy and always coming to classes late. Now, there will be no more excuses,” Patterson said.

The monorail was the idea of former Upper School Principal Dr. Roger Fuller, who had intended to control the train from his iPad. After Fuller returned to Maine, Rios and Patterson still hoped to complete it this year. Rios delegated the task of controlling the monorail to Austin Shalit ’16, Austin already does so much for Milken, so we knew that he would not have a problem taking on one more Milken activity”, Rios said.

The monorail will run from the Middle School Beit Midrash to the Upper School Beit Midrash; turning the Beit Midrashes into Grand Central Stations. Students will be able to avoid the daunting stairs to the Upper School parking lot. The monorail will at first only run in a trial stage after the end of each block. By the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year, Rios and Patterson hope to have it running every 10 minutes.

Students will soon be able to purchase their Milken Monorail cards in the Milken Mart, or on the myMilken resources page. Each trip will cost 29 cents, or you can purchase a month or year pass as well. Fern DuBow, who runs the Milken Mart said, “I really think this is a great addition to the Milken Mart. We are ordering automated machines where students can purchase cards, or even upload their Milken Monorail card, to their mart card.” She went on to say, “We’re even thinking about adding an escalator up to the tracks at the Beit Midrash.”

Students will start to notice the beginning of construction on the three million dollar project this April. Tiferet prices skyrocketed after the approval of the expensive monorail project. The monorail is expected to be completed by the beginning of the next school year. Even with the physical education instructors working to keep students healthy, the students will still be out of shape.

Overall, Patterson and Rios believe that the reception of the monorail has been positive. “We are pleased with how the project is progessing, and are looking forward to expanding it to other places around Milken,” Rios said. After the success of this monorail, is the Skirball parking lot next?