Call it a window of opportunity.

The state has approved a Regular Operating District (ROD) grant application that has been on hold since the beginning of the year to help fund new energy-efficient windows for Grover Cleveland Middle School, Ronald Skopak, business administrator and secretary of the Caldwell-West Caldwell Board of Education, said during Monday night's public meeting.

According to Skopak, Gov. Chris Christie released the funding last month for the capital project under the Educational Facilities Construction and Financing Act.

"As you probably know, the state of New Jersey hasn't been giving out much state aid lately," Skopak said. "We had placed earlier in the 09-10 school year an application for a grant from the state department for us to refund the replacement of energy-efficient windows at the Grover Cleveland Middle School.

"Those grants were held up by the new governor as he took office with no further indication as to what was going to occur with those applications."

When the state released the funding last month, it was good news for the middle school.

"Our particular application was rated as a No. 1 priority … the state will fund us at 40 percent of the cost," Skopak said. 

The capital project is projected to cost $1,336,000, Skopak told The Caldwells Patch. A transfer of those funds from the district's capital reserve fund would be part of the proposed budget package for the 2011-12 school year. 

Skopak said the middle school's current windows are single-glazed and date back to the 1970s. The replacement windows would be energy-efficient, thermal-glazed windows.