Teachers Honored; Plans Made At Monthly School Board Meeting

Teachers Honored

Hoboken's Curriculum and Personnel Director Dr. John Anzul opened Tuesday's School Board meeting by honoring the teachers of the year.

Six teachers were selected as this year’s recipients, which included two teachers from Hoboken High School. Board President Rose Marie Markle and Superintendent Mark Toback presented certificates to Elizabeth Schwartz of Brandt School, Sharlette Cullen of Calabro School, Elise Rosenberg of Wallace School, and and Michelle Switaj of Hoboken High School. Recipient Kenneth Turso of Connors School was not present at the meeting.

The board also recognized the High School Varsity Baseball Team for its outstanding season, and extended congratulations to Coach Charles Matthews for his work with the team and upcoming retirement. Coach Matthews presented individual awards to the students, and board members Carmelo Garcia and Frances Rhodes-Kearns presented Coach Matthews with a plaque for his years of dedication to the Hoboken School District.

A Six Year Capital plan

Following the honors Dr. Toback introduced the district’s Six Year Capital Plan, which includes several necessary repairs to the school buildings and facilities.

The basis for the plan is to promote a positive learning environment, fulfill the Board of Education and administration’s obligation to protect its community assets, eliminates the high cost of deferred maintenance, demonstrates good planning and budgeting, the projects are not flashy, and promote stable taxes. The projects are meant to maintain the integrity of the school facilities including heating and electricity, which would avoid high costs in deferred maintenance and promote energy efficiency.

Toback said a grant funded Energy Audit of the Hoboken School District was completed by the State in April, and he received the recommendations from that audit this past May, which was used to create the six year plan.

“[The energy audit looks at] how energy is used in all critical systems in our buildings, and gives you different projects the district can do,” Toback said.

Toback said that many of these projects are low cost and will end up paying for themselves over the next few years with conservation of energy and maintenance costs.

Though the list of possible projects recommended by the audit is extensive, Dr. Toback said the district looked at “what are our immediate needs for safety reasons,” and some of the energy efficient projects such as lighting and equipment upgrades were also weighed in for the Six Year Plan.

According to Dr. Toback, there has been about $50 million overall invested in capital projects and repairs over the last nine years. This is typical with older buildings.

“A lot of it are things we can’t see [done to the buildings] like roof repair,” said Dr. Toback. “There have been significant investments.”

The total cost of the projects over the next six years will run between $600,000 and $800,000 per year, which is already included in the district budget. The district is still seeking other funding possibilities, such as grants and additional state aide.

Toback said even though they are hoping for the best in additional funding, these repairs must be done and will proceed by funding the project locally if necessary.

“That would be from local sources [budget and local taxes],” Toback said. “This is not something that would lead to a tax spike. This is something that is incorporated in our budget now.”

Dr. Toback stresses that these are necessary repairs that if not taken care of now can worsen over the next five years.

Among the projects to begin in the 2011-2012 school year are improvements to the gym partition, basketball pully/motors, and fire doors in the high school; boiler and sidewalk repairs at Brandt School; resurfacing of playground area, replacement of a boiler and masonry arch, and sidewalk repairs at Connors School; replacing of clocks, partition, and sidewalk repairs at Wallace School; two sidewalk repairs at Calabro School; and sidewalk repairs and scoreboard replacement at JFK Stadium. Painting is also currently being done at the stadium.

New projects will be added to the Capital Plan every year once the current year’s projects are completed until all improvements are done.

“It is my hope that the six year plan will continue to be a practice in this district for a very long time because it’s good planning,” said Dr. Toback.

Other News From the Meeting

Other news included Toback’s recommendation of Dr. Miguel Hernandez to become the Assistant Superintendent of Schools. The superintendent also proposed purchasing 60 smart boards for the elementary schools, the review and approval for an Extended Year Program for the summer for interested students, approval of scholarships, and the creation of a gifted and talented program for the elementary schools, specifically grades Kindergarten through third grade.

“We are expanding the gifted and talented program for all the elementary schools during the school day,” Board member Ruth McAllister said. “It’s very exciting and long awaited.” 

The school district also received back $1.7 million in state aid thanks to a recent Supreme Court ruling, which returned aid to the original Abbott Special Needs Districts.

“That is an increase in state aid we will receive on the 8th and 22nd of every month throughout the year,’ Toback said.

According to Business Administrator Robert Davis, the money is coming from the Supreme Court’s 21st Abbott Decision to return $25 million in aide to the original Abbott Districts, of which Hoboken is one.

In addition, Toback announced the creation of an end of the year newsletter, which was approved by the board last night, and will be mailed to parents once published within the coming days. It will also be available online.