PASSAIC — City officials on Tuesday said goodbye – or better yet, good riddance – to the "temporary" classrooms that have occupied the playgrounds at School No. 1 and School No. 10 for nearly 20 years.

The wrecking ball arrived this week to take down 11 trailers at School No. 1 and four more at School 10. The trailers, once hastily erected to handle the influx of preschool students following the New Jersey Supreme Court's historic ruling in the Abbott vs. Burke school funding case, have been replaced by what the city wanted all along: new schools.

"We are getting rid of substandard classroom facilities and substituting them instead with state-of-the-art classrooms in this school and throughout the city," Gary Schaer, the city council president and state assemblyman said, just before taking a ceremonial whack at a pile of rubble at School 1 using a golden sledgehammer.

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In September, Passaic will open its newest elementary school, to be named after U.S. Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor, on Leonard Place. The 35 new classrooms at Sotomayor School rendered the cramped and damp trailers at School No. 1 and School No. 10 obsolete – so schools superintendent Pablo Munoz and Board of Education trustees took turns swinging the golden sledgehammer on Tuesday.

"That feels good," Munoz said after pounding the sledgehammer into a pile of debris. "Facilities matter. But much of the credit goes to the teachers. Leadership matters, too."

Once the demolition team finishes at School 10, Passaic will no longer have any trailers, officials said.

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Munoz thanked Gov. Phil Murphy and former Gov. Chris Christie, as well as the state legislature for investing in Passaic's schools. Schaer, who was once the powerful chairman of the state Budget Committee, said the city's future depends on its schools.

"These are important days for the children of Passaic, because they will be in excellent classrooms, and they will have excellent teachers to ensure that their goals as individuals will be met," he said.

Munoz took over as superintendent in 2013 and inherited a district where most of the students were poor, test scores were generally low, and the buildings were old. Since then, the state has poured well more than $1 billion into Passaic schools by way of state aid – most of it mandated by the Abbott ruling, which held that poor, urban districts must be fully funded to provide students with an equal education.

Since 2013, the state has built two new schools in Passaic, and four more are under construction on Dayton Avenue at the site of the former Beth Israel Hospital. Dayton Avenue is scheduled to be finished in 2022.

Munoz said the goal is for the district to meet the class-size standards set by the state, which is no more than 15 in prekindergarten, 21 in K to 3, 23 in grades 4 through 8, and 25 in high school classes.

Now, as space opens up, the trailers are no longer needed. A demolition crew is expected to visit School 10 on Wednesday to take down the trailers there.

School Board President Arthur Soto remembered passing by the trailers all those years and hoping to one day get rid of them. That day came on Tuesday.

"What an eyesore they were, although necessary," Soto said. "This has been a long time waiting, but we are so grateful. Good things come to those who wait."

Salim Patel, a former Passaic school board president, who is now a city councilman, attended School No. 1 as a child, before the trailers arrived. He said with the trailers gone, the city can restore the playground.

"A playground can be just as important to a kid's education as a classroom," Patel said.