Walk-and-talk focuses on school repair needs

BY SETH MANDEL
Staff Writer

MILLTOWN –– School officials tonight will host the second in a series of public meetings to educate residents on the pressing needs of the school system.

The meetings, billed as walk-and-talks, are tours of the Joyce Kilmer School grounds, during which attendees are shown the areas that officials believe are in need of renovations. District officials are holding the events in the hope of gaining support for the annual school budget, which was defeated last year, and a possible referendum.

The first walking tour took place in October, with 15 people in attendance. Schools Superintendent Linda Madison said she is hoping for a much larger turnout tonight.

“They were startled at what the needs were,” Madison said. “Everybody kind of walked away saying, ‘Wow, we really need to do something about this.’ ”

Madison said officials will give a PowerPoint presentation during the Jan. 24 budget hearing for those who could not attend either of the walk-and-talks this fall. A third walk-and-talk will be held Feb. 14, but at Parkview School.

Some repairs can be budgeted for if the spending plan is increased and approved, Madison said, but some of the work will require a referendum. The meetings are designed to raise awareness for both.

“We’re trying to plant the seed,” Madison said. “We’re trying to get people’s awareness of the fact that we can’t do these repairs on the regular operating budget. Even if [the budget] passes with flying colors, we could never do these kinds of repairs on the regular operating cost.”

Madison cited an analogy offered by one of the residents in attendance at the previous meeting, who compared the district’s need for a referendum on some repairs, to kitchen renovations.

“You’re not going to renovate your kitchen on your basic operating budget or your food budget. You’re going to have to go out for a home equity loan,” Madison said.

Among the areas where renovations are needed is the Joyce Kilmer gymnasium. The floor is more than 60 years old and is warped, she said. It cannot be sanded any further because the nails in the floorboards are becoming exposed. There is also a need for improved ventilation in the gym.

Madison also said the school’s electric capabilities must be upgraded because of the increased number of computers the school recently added.

“Here’s a pretty common problem: Teachers are in the faculty room at lunch time; they can’t run a coffee maker and a toaster oven at the same time, they’ll blow a fuse,” Madison said. “It’s just not adequate to handle the building requirements right now.”

Electrical upgrades would also enable officials to install air conditioning in the second-floor classrooms. Madison said temperatures can rise above 90 degrees in some of those rooms in the summertime.

“And we cannot put any kind of air conditioning in those classrooms because we just simply don’t have the electricity to support that,” she said.

During the hot weather, Madison said, the classes are often crowded into the all-purpose room or the media center, both of which have air conditioning.

“When it gets above 90 degrees, our instructional program is usually interrupted because the teachers must find a cooler place [where] they can bring their classes,” Madison said.

She added that it is not uncommon to have as many as four classes trying to use those rooms at the same time.

Since the school was constructed in 1946, it has been upgraded four times. A new roof accompanied each upgrade, so the building now has five roofs — some of which are beginning to leak, and all of which are past their life expectancy.

“They have all been held together with some very good maintenance, and a great maintenance department, but probably the whole building needs to be redone,” Madison said.

In addition, the columns outside the gym holding up the facade need to be replaced, and the Joyce Kilmer all-purpose room has no kitchen.

“We have no kitchen facility to serve lunch,” Madison said. “We have a closet that’s been converted into a makeshift kitchen facility where there are warming ovens, but there can be no food preparation done at Joyce Kilmer School. That’s something that has to be rectified.”

Madison said the walk-and-talks have been advertised on the local cable access channel, posted in various newspapers, and notices have been sent home with students.

Also, she said, officials hope word of mouth will help with tonight’s attendance, since those who attended the first meeting were happy they did.

“People walked away really feeling very good about it, that they were well informed, but also kind of overwhelmed at what was going to have to happen next in order to make the repairs,” Madison said.

The meeting will begin in the Joyce Kilmer all-purpose room at 7 p.m. and end by 8:30.

Students will guide each group of attendees, and a Board of Education member or administrator will be at each stop on the tour to field questions and comments.

Madison, who is in her first year as superintendent and is also principal of Parkview School, said she is pleased with the current state of the district, but stressed that the repairs are necessary and the district must plan for the future.

“Things are going well here, but we need the community’s support,” Madison said.