In the near future, Superintendent Bilodeau says he would like to see a new roof installed on Union Valley Elementary School.
With 2019 being nearly a month in, The Sun sat down with Gloucester Township Public Schools Superintendent John Bilodeau to learn about what might be on the horizon for students.
Bilodeau said the district is piloting language arts curriculum in first grade, as well as grades three through five. Grade one is currently testing the Super Kids ELA program, while grades three through five are using the Wit Wisdom ELA program.
“Any school district, not just ours, is required to make sure that its curriculum is matching what the state sets forth in these standards, so we are constantly evaluating what we offer students,” Bilodeau said. “The assistant superintendent and his supervisors do a great deal of work to include teachers in assessing where they want to go.”
He said some teachers across the district are using the curriculum now and giving feedback. At the moment, Bilodeau says the majority of the feedback has been positive, and the district plans to go district-wide with the curriculum this fall.
“It’s an updated, more appropriate, from our perspective, language arts program for those grades,” Bilodeau said.
The district, as well as much of the state, is still facing bus-staffing issues, something it has faced for numerous months. Bilodeau says the district is continuing to advertise for drivers while also meeting with state representatives regarding the issue.
“I’ve gone with George Bittner, the district’s transportation supervisor, and met with Assemblywoman (Gabriela) Mosquera just before Christmas,” Bilodeau said. “She was gracious enough to sit and listen when I had asked for that, and I explained to her this is not a Gloucester Township problem, this is a problem period.”
“If we were any other school district that owned buses, if we were even a bus company, they would have trouble getting them too,” Bilodeau said about the need for additional bus drivers.
Bilodeau says the issue the district is having is getting drivers to take the physical road test after having passed the written test, where the wait time to take the test can take as long as five months. At that point, many who were interested in the position often look elsewhere rather than take the job, according to Bilodeau.
Lastly, Bilodeau said the Ann A. Mullen Middle School roof is complete from the construction side of the project. There are a few smaller items the district engineer and others need to check over for a final assessment to ensure it’s complete.
An upcoming project Bilodeau said the board has already approved is an energy savings improvement plan, having raised about $10 million to install LED lights throughout the district and putting boilers in seven of the district’s buildings as well.
“In some cases, we have some elementary schools that have their original heating systems, and they’re over 50 years old, and I’m concerned,” Bilodeau said. “I think the prudent thing to do is to put these boiler systems in.”
More than 11,000 lights will be installed across the district, mostly interior lights but some exterior. The boiler system project is expected to begin as soon as this heating season is over in time to be installed and tested before next winter.
The last project Bilodeau spoke about is the possible addition of a new roof for Union Valley Elementary School. Currently, that stands as one of the most important capital projects on the slate for the upcoming budget year, according to Bilodeau.
He said, if approved, the roof would be installed this summer, and he expects it to cost somewhere in the range of $2.5 million. Bilodeau says the roof would be similar to the one that was just installed on Ann. A. Mullen Middle School.
Over the past approximately 15 years, Bilodeau says many of the schools have had new roofs installed, and he wants to ensure all the schools have solid, reliable roofs. After Union Valley potentially this summer, the final two schools on the list would be Gloucester Township Elementary and Glendora Elementary, possibly to be completed the following summer.
