Monroe Township school Superintendent Brian McBride provided an update on a number of subjects during the school board’s Feb. 19 meeting.
McBride offered details about the district’s response to the January snowstorm, which saw icy conditions plague Williamstown, resulting in school closures and bus scheduling issues when schools reopened. He praised the work of district personnel, as well as that of the police and public works departments.
“It was really a combined effort to battle the snow and ice that impacted our community,” McBride noted. “I want to make sure the community and board is aware that we had over 100 manpower hours that were added to our process, in addition to our regular workdays for our custodian and maintenance team. We touched just about $6,000 in overtime costs to tackle that.
“The team did an exceptional job in a short period of time and there was a lot of communication with families with concerns about kids getting on the buses,” he added. “I was able to work with the public works department; it was a great collaboration there to get the sidewalks opened up, especially from Clayton Road up to the middle school.”
McBride also discussed leaking pipes at Williamstown High School. There were four instances of ceiling pipe leakage recently in the school’s fire suppression system, the result of winds blowing into the building’s 30-year-old insulation. That, in turn, caused pipes to drop and become exposed. Some doors, floors and walls were damaged as a result, but custodial teams and firefighters were able to fix the pipes.
“The silver lining is that old equipment gets destroyed, and insurance buys the new,” McBride noted. “I’m sure there’s costs to that. But nonetheless, some new doors that were needed are part of those repairs. I’ll take that as a positive.”
McBride also announced that the board will wait until the first state budget address from Gov. Mikie Sherill on Tuesday to discuss the district’s new financial plan. That has resulted in the process being pushed back, the reason some recent board executive sessions have taken longer than usual.
The March school board meeting later this month will also “most likely” be changed as a result, according to McBride.
“Please stay tuned and we will release those changes to the community,” he explained. “It’s all really dependent upon the budget address, release of state aid and budget due dates for the board.”
