CRANFORD — On Monday, the Cranford Board of Education held its first televised meeting since the referendum passed on February 26. The meeting began with a report from Superintendent Scott Rubin, Ed.D., in which he discussed the upcoming audit to ensure compliance.
“You provide the state with different information for five different areas, and what happens is they will then come in and audit to make sure you are compliant with everything,” Dr. Rubin said, adding that the district has not undergone a full audit in more than a decade. “We were always designated as a high-performing school district and they used to let these districts go for a few years, but now they did away with that so all school districts will have to go through the process.”
The results of the audit, as well as any necessary remediation plans, will be presented to the public over the coming months.
In his report, BusinessAdministrator/ Board Secretary Robert Carfagno discussed a preliminary timeline for upcoming projects that will be completed now that the referendum has passed.
“There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that needs to be put together. We put together a Kindergarten committee that just had their first meeting today,” Mr. Carfago said Monday, adding that district officials will be meeting with the Building and Grounds committee next week to discuss priorities.
“Time is of the essence, and we are getting our ducks in a row,” Mr. Carfagno said.
It was reported that the addition of classrooms will take the most time. A geotechnical engineering item on the proposal was discussed which would test the composition of the soil at multiple schools before work can begin.
“This is part of the process that we need to take to get done,” Mr. Carfagno said. “Last time we approved the architects. Things like bleachers will be at the top of the list because of safety. It will take some years, but we think we have a good timetable to get things done, and tonight we just want to get the process going so we can get rolling on the testing of the soil. Public funds require you go out to bid or have someone go out to bid before you use the co-ops or the things you see on the agenda. We are trying to get certain projects done by the summer. You have to advertise for bids…So there is a lot of logistics and scheduling we are trying to work out. We are going to try to stagger it and have the least amount of interruption to education.”
