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WW-P projects near completion as classes resume on Thursday

By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
   WEST WINDSOR — The end is in sight as far as construction at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South is concerned, as students and staff prepare to kick off the 2008-2009 school year on Thursday.
   The hope of West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District officials is that the end of 2008 will bring the completion of new auditorium and gym space to the district’s older high school. Also, renovations on art and music instruction space within the older portions of the school should be completed by next week, district officials said.
   When the renovation and construction work is finished, students and staff will have the use of a brand-new auditorium, a new secondary gym to complement the larger gym in the main portion of the high school, along with the improved music and art space.
   The various projects at High School South are among the last in a series of improvements called for in the 2006 facilities referendum in which voters gave the district the go-ahead for an ambitious construction program.
   Currently, work on those new facilities means shuffled and somewhat cramped parking arrangements. There is also the clutter of construction equipment and materials scattered on the grounds of the Clarksville Road campus, although returning students and staff should be used to those conditions by now, according to district officials.
   ”I think that relative to that aspect, for the start of school we’re going to see exactly the same kinds of things we did last year,” said Larry Shanok, assistant superintendent for finance.
   Those arrangements mean that a fraction of school staff are now forced to park in what was traditionally the student lot off Clarksville Road and Route 571. In previous years all of the school staff parked in the rear lot.
   Also, buses that at one time parked along sidewalks surrounding the Penn Lyle lot are now split between the front and rear of the school, Mr. Shanok said.
   In other changes at the high school, space that was once used as an auxiliary gym has now been converted to four classrooms. Older portions of the high school’s roof also received some treatment to fix what Mr. Shanok termed as the “flaking” of the materials coating the school’s metallic roof.
   Other district schools received a variety of maintenance and repairs over the summer.
   Millstone River Elementary School has some new roofing, and masonry repairs were performed at Village Elementary School in West Windsor and Town Center Elementary School in Plainsboro, Mr. Shanok said.
   Dutch Neck Elementary in West Windsor will have the use of a handful of renovated classrooms after work crews replaced the lighting, along with putting in some new ceilings.
   District Communications Director Gerri Hutner said the district will be welcoming 55 new teachers this year.
   That number is slightly higher than normal, she said, but the district implemented an anticipated vacancy plan to get a better handle on the staffing needs the district would experience, following retirements and transfers to other districts.
   As far as the district administration is concerned, the only major addition was the installment of Christine Capaci as the new Village Elementary School principal. Ms. Capaci is a Plainsboro resident who served as an administrator in the nearby Cranbury school district, Ms. Hutner said.
   The Board of Education is continuing its search for a new board member, after longtime resident Stan Katz resigned, prior to moving to Colorado. Persons interested in the serving on the board for the remainder of Mr. Katz’s unexpired term are required to send the district a letter of interest by Sept. 11.
   The board plans to appoint someone to Mr. Katz’s old seat by Sept. 23, Ms. Hutner said.