HILLSBOROUGH: Schools stayed busy all summer

By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
      School administrators on Monday night updated the Board of Education on work that has been accomplished over the summer.
   Building principals introduced new teachers and long-term substitutes who attended the meeting. With 32 retirements, 22 resignations and 20 new positions, this was one of the largest staff increases in years, said Assistant Superintendent Scott Rocco.
   The largest number was at the high school. Principal Karen Bingert presented 25 certificated staffers, including long-term staffers. There are another 13 at the middle school and 12 at the intermediate school.
   Board Secretary Aiman Mahmoud detailed summer facilities work. The most prominent might be the removal of rotted siding and repainting the former Bloomingdale School, next to the elementary school on Amwell Road, at a cost of $18,116, he said. Worn carpeting was replaced in the offices there, too.
   Woodfern School saw about $47,000 in improvements, with the money roughly equally going to tile that replaced carpeting replaced and exterior lights to illuminate the front and parking lot.
   Tiling was also put down in the HES multipurpose room and high school library, and the middle school gym floor was painted.
   Locker replacement in the middle school annex corridor, expected to cost more than $104,000, is expected to begin in the November break.
   Planned for this month is the replacement of the high school auditorium stage, which was damaged by a leaking shallow pool built for a fall student dramatic production. Estimated cost is $40,000.
   Assistant Superintendent Lisa Antunes said staffers completed a massive rewriting and updating of curriculum in nine areas covering all subjects except math and science. She said 7,575 hours of curriculum writing had been accomplished by 372 writers.
   Board member Lisa Soisson noted that about $3,000 worth of feathered repairs of spots in the Woods Road School gym floor were made in a building with a leaky roof. Mr. Mahmoud said leaks maybe related to gutter backups and the school architect was looking at possible solutions. Superintendent Jorden Schiff said any leaks weren’t over the gym floor.