Bloomfield schools get ready for coming year during the summer

The school district never sleeps so, naturally, its personnel are kept busy during the summer. There was building maintenance to be done and envisioned changes to the curriculum enacted, according to the district’s business administrator, Vicky Guo, and the supervisor of buildings and grounds, Joseph Scazafave.

At Bloomfield High School, there were installations of new exterior lights, panic bars on gym doors and new stair treads in stairwells. The surface of the food service driver’s station outside the school was upgraded and steps on the Belleville Avenue side of the school, and the sidewalk, were repaired.

At Bloomfield Middle School, there was one big job: New floor tiles were installed in the entire west wing of the building.

At Berkeley Elementary School, the boys and girls basement bathrooms were renovated with new lighting and sinks, ceiling sprinkler heads were modified to bring them up to code, new bathroom doors installed and the rooms got a fresh coat of paint. New flooring was also installed in the west wing of the basement.

At Brookdale Elementary School, the boys and girls gym bathrooms were renovated with new sinks, toilets, etc. There was scraping, cementing and leveling for new tile bathroom floors. Both bathrooms were painted and the nurse’s office was updated.

At Carteret Elementary School, the boys and girls gym bathrooms were retiled.

Two new custom doors were installed on the second floor of Demarest Elementary School and new ceiling tiles were installed in the basement hallway.

At Fairview Elementary School, water damage to the stage was repaired and the entire stage was repainted. Additional water damaged areas, on the second floor, were repaired. New tiles were installed in the electrical room.

Foley Field was not overlooked: lockers were repainted.

At the Early Childhood Center at Forest Glen, the entire exterior landscape was groomed and beautified.

Room 206, at Franklin Elementary School, was given a new tile floor. Also at Franklin, as at Fairview, the water damaged stage area was repaired and the entire stage area was repainted. There was an installation of a new retaining wall outside the front of the school and the entire front of the property was beautified. The boiler doors in the basement were replaced.

At Oakview Elementary School, new basement ceiling tiles were installed; new ceiling tiles were installed in the first floor boys and girls bathroom as was new LED lighting was also installed while outside, in the parking lot, cracks were repaired.

At Watsessing Elementary School, the front entrance railings and gates were grinded, sanded and repainted. The second-floor balcony was repainted. Sinking sidewalks were repaired and stairwells were repainted.

According to Superintendent Sal Goncalves and Assistant Superintendent Joseph Fleres, classrooms will also reflect change.

There will be about 60 new staff members, certified and uncertified. Helen Doyle–Marino will be the new principal at the Early Childhood Center at Forest Glen. At the high school, Desiree Testa will be a new assistant principal. Marino was the director of special services for the Nutley School District. Testa comes from the BHS social studies department.

There will be a new health initiative, with an emphasis on the elementary schools, called Healthy Mondays. This effort will be joined by the township and county health departments and will focus on physical activity and an awareness of healthy living and eating. The message will be carried via social media and incorporated in the curriculum. Fleres said this is a pilot program.

“It came about with discussions with the Health Department,” he said. “We pride ourselves in educating the whole child. The idea is to start on Monday and have a good rest of the week.”

At Bloomfield Middle School, social studies and science will be offered everyday. There will be more electives offered, with three teachers being added, and there will be more favorable class sizes.

There will be an initiative called Targeted Intervention and Enrichment. Determined by benchmarks, such as standardized tests and classroom performances, children will be assigned to sections of English language arts and math instructors. The intervention will be for the school year and the work is ungraded.

At Bloomfield High School, with support from the Bloomfield Educational Foundation, podcasting will be a class for students aiming for a career in technology.

“It’s a growing industry and we want to prepare the kids for the real world,” Fleres said.

“The goal is to offer podcasting to all students through clubs and electives,” Goncalves said, adding that he will be podcasting, too, sharing valuable information to help employees, professionally and personally. His podcast will begin this month and be produced on a monthly basis.

“We pride ourselves with having a positive culture,” Fleres said. “People have lives outside the four walls of our schools.”

“We couldn’t do it without the Board of Education,” Goncalves said. “Because of them, we have a high-performance school district.”

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