Work to Continue at Greater Egg Schools Into the School Year

School resumes for the Greater Egg Harbor Regional School District’s three high schools Sept. 4, but some of the construction that has been ongoing will continue at two of the schools well after the begin of the new school year.

Voters whose children attend , Cedar Creek and Oakcrest high schools approved by a variety of projects that included replacing roofs, HVAC units and/or upgrading fire alarms at one or all of the three high schools. Aspects of the overall project are ongoing.

Yet, during Monday night's Board of Education meeting, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Steven Ciccariello reiterated, "We are going to get school started on time."

"We've been assured that the work (the contractors) have yet to do isn't going to be disruptive" once school resumes next month, Ciccariello added.

During Monday night's meeting, Ciccariello, along with Charles Muller, the district's business administrator, explained that work on the roofs at both Absegami and Oakcrest high schools will continue well into the 2012-13 school year. A part of the issue at hand is the extensiveness of the construction project, especially at Oakcrest High School.

No one realized until potions of the roof were removed that those areas were nailed into the girders underneath. Removal of these areas in the roof affected the ceiling panels in four of the classrooms, Ciccariello and Muller explained, noting that the additional work needed to address the issue would be covered by guarantee.

In other business, Ciccariello said the district's program committee has recommended that students' requirement to take a world language be reduced to one year to mirror the state requirement. He asked if the matter could be placed on an upcoming meeting agenda.

The recommendation prompted a lengthy discussion with some board members questioning whether the district should entertain the measure since many colleges or universities require incoming students to have  two or more years of a foreign language.

The Greater Egg Harbor Regional High School District requires students to take two years of a foreign language in order to graduate.

Ciccariello said this is not the first time that the minimum requirement at the state level has changed; the state went from a two-year to a one-year requirement several years ago. Then, it went back to a two-year minimum.