“Hey, come on, it’s always exciting to come back,” Hoboken Schools Superintendent Jack Raslowsky said last week, trying not to sound humorous.
The city’s public schools open for classes this Wednesday, Sept. 3.
There are some changes this year. The city’s three primary schools – Calabro, Connors, and Wallace – are now kindergarten through eighth grade, completing a three-year plan to phase out the two middle schools.
The Brandt and Demarest middle school buildings now have other educational uses.
Brandt, located at Ninth and Garden streets, is now an early childhood school only.
Demarest, a large building next to Church Square Park on Fourth Street, is historic because it was once the town’s high school, and included Frank Sinatra as a student. Now, it houses an alternative high school vocational program. It also houses the K-12 Hoboken Charter School.
The vocational high school at Demarest will have its cosmetology room completed during the school year and a culinary arts trailer, said district facilities director Tim Calligy.
The school district also includes Hoboken High School, located at Ninth and Clinton streets.
Raslowsky said it is good for children to attend the same elementary school through eighth grade. “This will allow kids to remain in schools they have roots in,” Raslowsky said.
The kids in all schools will see a difference in their lunches this year, as a new food vendor was hired over the summer.
Chartwells, a nationwide food service vendor for schools, will introduce a new menu designed to increase the number of high school students who stay in the building for lunch.
What’s new?
Over the summer, the district introduced a new curriculum for pre-K, and will expand it in 2009 to include kindergarten.
Improvements and expansions were also made to the International Baccalaureate and Johns Hopkins programs for gifted students in the upper grades.
The IB program, which is an international curriculum for gifted students, has a new focus for middle school kids, according to Raslowsky. The Hopkins program will be offered in late fall at the Wallace and Calabro schools as an after-school program, he said.
Hoboken High School is being equipped with an air conditioning system, and the project should be completed by the end of September, according to Facilities Director Tim Calligy.
Calligy said that many of the rooms were also given a fresh coat of paint over the break, as well as other general housekeeping upgrades.
At the high school level, students now have access to a TV studio and will learn video production and filmmaking both as a class and as an extracurricular activity.
For questions or comments on this story, e-mail tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.