Robert Gomes, building supervisor for the school district of Glen Ridge, had a busy summer.
The school district has not let the summer months drift idly away. Custodians and maintenance workers, with outside vendors, have been busy keeping school buildings operable and ready to withstand another school year. But there have been improvements, too.
According to Robert Gomes, the supervisor of building and grounds, who is starting his second year in the district, all five Glen Ridge schools received attention.
“At Central School, we emptied out the classrooms, cleaned and disinfected everything and changed the filters in the HVAC units,” he said.
Several Central School classrooms were painted as were several stairwells.
“The painting is pretty much on a needed basis,” he added. “When our custodial staff is done with their duties, they do the painting. Central School is newer and doesn’t need as much work. But people don’t realize the work involved in the schools. We have six weeks before teachers come back to get ready for a new year.”
Also at Central, Gomes said just before school closed in June, a shade structure was added to the playground; someplace for the children to relax away from the sun. Raingutters were also cleaned, as they are, summer and winter.
At Ridgewood Avenue School, a section of the gym roof, the entire lower portion, was replaced.
“A company came in for that,” Gomes said. “We also installed new gates in front of the school driveways. It’s so people don’t drive in when kids are playing ball or so that their ball doesn’’t roll down into the street.”
The carpet was removed at the school’s media center and luxury vinyl tiles were installed. Carpets were installed in media center offices, too.
“It was due,” Gomes said. “That carpet was old and now it’s easier to maintain. That’s about it for Ridgewood Avenue School except for regular cleaning, disinfectant, and stripping floors. A lot of work goes into this and it’s all done with staff.”
Gomes said the district has 17 custodial staff members and one maintenance worker.
“The custodians pretty much do the cleaning during the night. Maintenance does repairs; small and routine maintenance. When it snows, maintenance does the plowing and custodians shovel the walks. What we do is definitely a lot of work. Without seeing it, people don’t realize it.”
At Linden Avenue School, there was the ordinary cleaning and painting. Filters were replaced in the HVAC systems, but only in some classrooms because of custodians’ summer vacations.
At Forest Avenue School, there was also painting and cleaning, including the cafeteria. About five classrooms were also painted. Stairs did not escape the slap of the brush.
“We normally try to tackle one stairwell in each primary school,” Gomes said. “It’s more involved with scaffolding. If we can’t get to it, we do touch-ups during the break.”
At the high school, Gomes said it’s been an exciting year.
“We have had an HVAC project going,” he said. “On the second floor, 20 new heating and cooling vents were installed in the classrooms. And there’s a thermostat and new piping in each room. Before this, there was just heating. Now we’ve added air conditioning. This was a project that was started before I came here in September 2022. I’m finishing it up.”
Gomes said the entire second floor of the high school will be air conditioned as previously were the cafeteria, the large group instruction area and certain offices.
The so-called “band room stairwell” was also redone. This is a three-story project. Gomes said the stair treads and risers were replaced and each landing was given new tiling. Also at the high school, a new paging system is being installed. By the new year, Gomes said additional security cameras should be installed at every Glen Ridge school. That said, all that remains to be done is the first day of school.
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