By Amy Batista, Special Writer
The board discussed its recruitment process and trying to fill vacant positions during its meeting on June 24.
”We are doing a lot of interviewing and recruiting,” said Superintendent of Schools Steven Mayer.
There are more than 20 positions open in the district for a “variety of reasons,” he said.
”There are only two new ones that are part of the budget,” he said. “Between retirements, folks moving out of the area, and different things like that we are doing a lot of recruiting.”
Board member Florence Gange confirmed this during her personnel committee report.
”We have several resignations and many new appointments,” said Ms. Gange.
She thanked the individuals who resigned for their service.
”I’m going to do a little shout out to those individuals and thank them for their service,” she said. “They are all moving onto greener pastures hopefully for their personal life and we thank them for everything that they have done.”
Mr. Mayer noted he is “pleased” to say that the candidates who are applying “have Robbinsville at the top of their list of districts to work in. That’s been affirming.”
He noted that Assistant Superintendent Kathleen Foster and he are “sort of the final stop on the interview process.”
”Typically, candidates will enter at the school level, do a demonstration lesson in the buildings then Kathy and I see them if they move through the bonus round, and we’ve been impressed by the caliber of candidates that have come to us and by their reflection on wanting to work in this community, which we are very pleased about,” he said.
Board member Vincent Costanza asked which colleges the candidates attended.
”We see a lot from TCNJ (The College of New Jersey) and Rider but we are also seeing from kids that are going out of state who are coming back,” Mr. Mayer said. “Interestingly, three of the candidates that we are moving forward with between tonight’s agenda and July were students of mine that went to West Windsor where I was principal.”
Mr. Mayer used to be a principal at Grover Middle School in West Windsor.
Jeanae Ayala and Tawrye Mason were approved by the board to serve as administrative interns under the advisement of Robbinsville High School Vice Principal Nicole Rossi during the 2014-15 school year.
”We are making good progress and should have Pond Road School, the bus and parking loop at Sharon, and the renovations to the oldest classrooms at Sharon (including air-conditioning) completed before school starts,” Mr. Mayer said in an email on July 3.
”The addition at Sharon, 27 classrooms and a gym, is on schedule to be complete on October 31,” he said.
Business Administrator and Board Secretary Robert DeVita provided the board with an update on the construction at Sharon Elementary School.
”If you drive over to Sharon sometime this week, I am sure you are going to see all the site work being done,” said Mr. DeVita. “If you actually look at the building it actually looks like a building now. The roof is finally up. Most of the block wall is there and I believe we should have the whole building enclosed in the next couple of weeks.”
They should get the interior work done in the next couple of months, he added.
The board approved a $13,000 contract with Spiezle Architecture to modify drawings for the change in scope for the assistant principal’s and Child Study Team (CST) offices in the new addition; to modify drawings to install the solar inverters in the mechanical room versus a location outside the building and to modify drawings to incorporate all of the district initiated technology revisions.
Board member Thomas Halm noted it was “work the district asked them to do.”
”Changes we made to the assistant principal’s and CST offices required technology and the location of a solar inverter causing the changes of a number of drawings,” said Mr. Halm. “The committee also discussed how the technology changes have allowed us to add access points to every existing classroom in Sharon not just the new addition at Sharon.”

