$950K To Replace Turf Field, Track At Hillsborough High School Approved By Board Of Ed

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ — More than $1 million in improvements are coming to the Hillsborough Township School District.

The Board of Education approved three proposals at its Jan. 29 meeting to replace the High School field turf and track, ceiling tiles at Woods Road Elementary School and masonry work at multiple school buildings throughout the district.

One contract was awarded to Field Turf USA, Inc., who submitted the lowest time and material pricing, to replace the synthetic turf field and track for an amount not to exceed $950,902.75.

Another proposal was approved for LAN Associates to conduct district wide exterior masonry control joints replacements at all nine schools across the district for $123,700.

The last proposal was for LAN Associates to conduct ceiling replacement at Woods Road for $28,750.

Board member Jean Trujillo raised concerns with the proposal for the ceiling tile replacement.

"I just don’t think that is the highest priority and request for the operations committee to take a look at it," said Trujillo of the project.

The proposal voted on at the meeting was just for the prework to put the project out to bid.

Trujillo noted that she believed the actual work is estimated to be closer to $300,000.

Business Administrator/Board Secretary Gerard Eckert confirmed that Trujillo's estimate is what they "expect the bids would come in, up to about that."

"My view on it is that is a lot of money for ceiling tiles. I think the money could be better spent elsewhere," said Trujillo.

Superintendent Michael Volpe said it is his "recommendation that this work needs to be done and we can’t solicit bids for us until we have the architects for that work."

After the bids come back, the Board would still need to "take action to accept any of those bids and then go ahead and do that work," said Volpe.

When it came down to vote on the three approvals, Board member Jane Staats abstained on the track proposal and Trujillo voted no on the ceiling tile proposal.

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