Emergency Snowfall Presents Unusual Problems for Schools

Reflections on one of the most unusual weeks in Hopatcong Borough Public Schools by Superintendent of Schools Dr. Charles Maranzano, Jr.




One of the many challenges for school administrators is how to respond to educational conditions under abnormal circumstances. The week of October 31-November 4, 2011, will certainly go down in the historical archives for Hopatcong Borough Public Schools as a highly abnormal event. The unprecedented snow storm of October 28-29, 2011, caused a significant amount of damage to the electrical infrastructure in the state and region and our school facilities were all severely impacted.



Due to the widespread power outages all of our schools went days without electricity causing us to cancel school. In fact, it was not until late in the week that the majority of our school buildings were brought back on the electrical grid. Due to the length of time without power we lost most of our food inventory in our school cafeterias. Additionally, many of our mechanical systems were compromised when the power “phased” out meaning that we lost motors, electrical contacts, and other critical components. All of our fire suppression systems lost the basic codes and required extensive reprogramming as did our alarm systems. The loss of phones, internet, file servers, and other technologically related equipment also presented challenges for us. Prior to bringing students or staff back into any of our buildings all of the above needed to be addressed.



There are many unintended consequences to an emergency of such magnitude and I only outlined a few. Consider that many of our children and family were forced to leave the Borough to find shelter in other towns (typically with family members residing nearby) or that our staff members were also displaced due to the lack of power in their homes. As of Friday, November 4, 2011, there were hundreds of families in Hopatcong still without power.



The fact that we were able to open four of five schools on Friday was nothing short of a major achievement for us given the multi-layered challenges we were confronted with.



The staff in Hopatcong did a remarkable job during the crisis. Neil Piro and his team had a lot of work to do at each school inspecting and testing all of our mechanical equipment The food supplies in our freezers needed to be disposed of and have been inventoried and replaced thanks to Ronnie Blewitt and her kitchen team. The tech team continues to asses our technology infrastructure and telephone systems as well at the alarm systems to ensure everything continues to operate. Kyle Bisignani stepped up to a strong challenge during this storm. Our Alert Now System served us very well as I received many compliments from citizens for making early decisions and communicating conditions in Hopatcong via the automated phone system.



I received excellent cooperation with the police, Chief Swanson, and Mayor Petillo during the week. There are lots of people to thank for their cooperation and collaboration during the crisis. The office staff was challenged to respond to deadlines, reports, compliance issues, and the usual workload as well as field multiple telephone calls from the pubic this past week. JoAnne Murray did a remarkable job of managing our office functions, and the finance staff distributed paychecks on Monday in the dark to employees who needed them.



The Patch and Star Ledger ran stories on Thursday that explained very clearly what the challenges were for our school district. My administrative team encouraged us to get out in front of the story via the media and this worked very well for us this week. Channel 12 was also a good vehicle for communicating the continued challenges that confronted us in Hopatcong as a result of the crisis.



We will submit a FEMA claim once all of the costs associated with the storm are documented in an attempt to recover most of the costs associated with the damages or food loss. However, the State Education Department of New Jersey will not grant us a waiver for time lost so we need to consider the impact on our school calendar as the year progresses without the support of the state officials. The School Board will consider all of the options available as we assess the impact on our calendar over the next few weeks and months.



I would like to thank the professional staff, administrators, teachers, workers, and citizens of Hopatcong for their perseverance and patience during the crisis. The fact that most people did not react emotionally and kept a steady perspective on the tasks and challenges we face speaks volumes about our educational team. Hopatcong is a resilient community and I am confident we will quickly move forward to promote the education of our children in this community. Each decision made during the past week had the health, safety and welfare of our children and employees as the basis for those decisions. I thank everyone for their support and understanding during these difficult times and am proud to be your leader as superintendent of schools.