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By Frank Mustac, Contributor
Two new members of the school board and one returning member were sworn into office during the Hopewell Valley Regional School District Board of Education reorganization meeting on Monday., Susan Pollara from Hopewell Borough is one of the new members. Peter DiDonato, a resident of Hopewell Township, is the other. Michael Markulec, also from the township, has come back for a second consecutive three-year term on the board., All three ran uncontested in the November 2016 election., Ms. Pollara and Mr. DiDonato replaced former members Bruce Gunther and Gordon Lewis, both of whom retired from the board at the end of last year., Lisa Wolff was reelected as board of education president after a unanimous vote by the nine-member board. Alyce Murray also garnered unanimous approval to serve as vice president., “It is my honor to serve on this board, and I appreciate your confidence by electing me again” Ms. Wolff told to board members during the Jan. 9 board of education meeting., The board president also talked about the accomplishments made in the school district during 2016 and just one disappointment., “Last year was a good year for our board and we did get a lot done,” she said. “I am happy to report that almost all of the goals we set for ourselves in 2016 were accomplished.”, A big goal that was achieved, Ms. Wolff said, was the passage of a $35 million facilities bond referendum., Voters in Hopewell Borough, Pennington Borough and Hopewell Township approved the measure in a special election held Sept. 27, 2016. The bond is slated to fund repair work, construction, alterations and other capital improvements at several schools in the district., “Not only did the referendum pass, but it passed by a 2-to-1 margin, which is fantastic,” she said. “The referendum is going to cover a lot of nice items that we need, like the roofs and air conditioning. But the reason that our board is here and the reason that we needed the referendum is because our goal is to do the best for student achievement. By improving the facilities, we’re hoping to provide the best environment for our students to achieve.”, “Additionally, we have seen improvements in that area,” the board president said, explaining that the Hopewell Valley Regional School District was recently named to the College Board AP Honor Roll., “The College Board AP Honor Roll is for schools that increased their Advance Placement access to students while maintaining or improving the number of students who got a score of 3 or better on the AP exam,” Ms. Wolff said. “This year, 433 schools across the United States and Canada made it. We were among them. This is the seventh year that they’ve had AP Honor Roll. It’s our third time appearing on it, and it’s our second consecutive year.”, The one disappointment in 2016, she said, was that the contract renegotiation with the Hopewell Valley Education Support Professionals Association (HVESPA) was not completed., “The board has five collective bargaining units that we work with, and four out of the five are currently closed,” the board president said. “But try as we may, we were unable to get the fifth one closed. We were really hoping to get it done before Christmas. We kind of felt like Scrooge when we didn’t have it before Christmas., “The HVESPA, we’ve been in negotiations with them for about a year. We started in January of last year, and we were really hoping to get it closed. The HVESPA consists of secretaries, paraprofessionals, custodial staff and maintenance. Some of them are our lowest-paid employees of our different unions., “It’s very important to everyone on the board that we would really like to see this contract closed. I am pledging to the public that we are going to work as hard as we can to see that it gets closed.”, Board member Leigh Ann Peterson has agreed to continue as chair of the school board’s negotiation team., “I am quite pleased that Leigh is willing to step up to that commitment. It’s a big commitment and it takes a lot of time,” Ms. Wolff said.
