No Heat Reported In Hillsborough Classrooms

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ — Cold classrooms earlier this week lead the Hillsborough Board of Education to make drastic changes.

A total of 8 of the 9 schools in Hillsborough's School District did not have heat in the classrooms on Monday. Some reportedly had temperatures below 60 degrees, according to Amy Salinger, a teacher at Auten Road Intermediate School and Treasurer for the Hillsborough Education Association.

At AIRS two classrooms also had radiators that burst causing flooding in those rooms. The classes had to be relocated until the rooms were deemed safe again, Salinger said during the HBOE meeting on Jan. 9.

"Picture this. Children in winter coats and gloves trying to focus on learning. A teacher also in a winter coat and gloves trying to keep them focused. Hard as they try they can’t help but give attention to their cold toes and noses. This is not a made up picture, it is what I observed in a classroom today. This is a distraction to their learning," Salinger said.

Dr. Jorden Schiff, Superintendent of Schools and Business Administrator Aiman Mahmoud announced at the meeting that major changes that have been made to address the cold classrooms. Specially with Aramark, which the school district has a contract with for maintenance services at the schools.

• A special designated extension or hotline number has been created for staff to contact with building issues. The extension is 3478. It will be manned with two people from 7 a.m. until around 5 p.m. each school day.
• Two higher level building and grounds employees of Aramark were fired and replaced.
• Aramark was also contacted Monday night to have employees work all night to get the classrooms heated up and ready for the Tuesday school day.

"We had far too many classrooms that were cold. And we saw this across many buildings and many classrooms. We were very, very concerned about that and have taken action to make certain these issues don’t continue in our district," Schiff said. "We can't express profoundly enough how disappointed we are in Aramark and that change needs to be made in that organization."

Schiff hinted that the board of education would also be reevaluating it's contract with Aramark to see if they plan on renewing in the future.

(Image via Morguefile)

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