Westfield School District Update 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 9

I am happy to report that we have now successfully completed our first full day of school in November!

Power is now fully restored to all Board of Ed buildings and we are advised that safety concerns have been sufficiently ameliorated. Accordingly, all schools, fields and facilities are now open and I will discontinue these daily updates unless for some reason conditions change. 

Please continue to visit the District website and look for emails from your school’s principal and teachers which may be relevant to your child. 

We fully understand that not everyone has their power back and that some of us are still without heat or a decent place to do homework. The Administration continues to work with our principals and teachers on establishing the optimal way to deal with each individual student’s circumstances. Please do not hesitate to reach out directly to your child’s teacher and / or principal as your circumstances require. Obviously, if your personal circumstances dictate that your child cannot get safely to and from school, do not send them and let your child’s school know by contacting the main office.

We all know that we have missed more days of school than our calendar allows and these extra days will have to be made up over the remaining school year. We already made up days this Thursday and Friday and we had four days built into the calendar that we can use for this purpose.  So, hopefully, we can readily find a solution for the rest. This topic, and a proposed solution, will be discussed and likely approved at our next public Board of Education meeting to be held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, November 13, 2012, in the Board of Education Building located at 302 Elm Street in Westfield.

Given that school has resumed, and the use of the Jefferson Elementary School as a warming center has diminished, we will be closing that school for such use effective today.   The Town Library will be open until midnight tonight and will then resume normal operating hours, without continuing the extended midnight hours after tonight.  There does remain open a 24 hour a day Union County Regional Shelter located at 220 Walnut Ave. in Cranford, New Jersey. 

On behalf of the Westfield Public Schools, I would like to extend our greatest thanks to all of those who reached out to help throughout this natural disaster and who continue to do so.  We all faced new issues and circumstances and I am proud of the people I work with here in the District and in Town government, as well as all of those citizens who came together to help all of us get through this as best possible.  Together we can continue to help each other move forward.

Rich Mattessich, President, Westfield Board of Education