By Eileen Oldfield Staff Writer
Starting school can be a flurry of books, helping students find lockers and classes, but for Hillsborough’s new faculty and staff members, the start of school was anything but harried.
”It can be very chaotic,” Liana Chernoff, a Hillsborough Middle School teacher said. “You’re trying to get the kids used to their schedules. It wasn’t chaotic (in Hillsborough) for a lot of us.”
”When you jump into a job, it’s so stressful,” Lillian Grillo, also a Hillsborough Middle School teacher said. “Here, it’s very calming.”
The district welcomed approximately 50 new faculty and staff members to the district at its Tuesday meeting, though many of the district’s new teachers began working in the last week of August. District Superintendent Edward Forsthoffer said most of the new faculty and staff members were filling positions left vacant because of retirements.
Several of the teachers said the existing staff helped ease them into the new school year, whether it was the simply starting the first day or learning the location of equipment at their new schools.
”I was very pleasantly surprised,” Michelle Klink, a Sunnymead Elementary School teacher who also student-taught at that school, said. “The transition from summer to starting the school year, and trying to get everything done everyone was very helpful.”
Starting school didn’t come without last-minutes changes, however, though the teachers took the changes in stride.
”More kids coming in, having more students in the classroom than expected,” Woods Road Elementary School teacher Cheryl Romano said of the days leading to school’s start.
Ms. Romano said the fluctuations in class size could be expected prior to school’s start as an Academic Skills Instructor, students can be placed in her classes as schedules dictate.
With few problems at the year’s start, many of the teachers have high expectations for the comings year.
”I feel like I don’t have to ask for anything,” Nicole Friedman, a Hillsborough Middle school teacher said.

