Hopatcong Middle and Elementary Schools Opening Tuesday

Hopatcong Middle School and the borough elementary schools will open again on Tuesday after being shut down for two weeks from the damage caused by superstorm Sandy, superintendent Dr. Charles Maranzano said. 

Maranzano said Hopatcong High School will remain closed until further notice, but it is possible the school could open its doors as early as Wednesday. 

All schools had their power restored on Sunday, Maranzano said, but the buses cannot run on Monday because there are still hazardous road conditions outside.

Maranzano said that the schools that are opening on Tuesday will run on full schedules. He said the schools that were originally scheduled to have half-days from Tuesday to Thursday for parent-teacher conferences will have full days instead.

He said the parent teacher conferences will be postponed to either December or January.

"We've got to get kids in classrooms," he said. "That's the objective."

Maranzano said the high school can't open until the shelter is cleaned thoroughly, which could take 1-2 days.

The shelter will close Monday night, after the majority of the borough got power restored on Sunday.

In terms of making up the lost time, Maranzano said he's looking at a few options that will be decided on in the next few weeks.

He said he's in contact with the Commissioner of Education and the Governor's office to figure out the best solution. One of the possibilities Maranzano said he's looking at is to extend the school days so the total instructional hours in the year equals the required 180 days.

"That would help us if we could make up time in terms of equivalent hours," he said. "That's a suggestion that's been tested and used for many years in other places."

The schools would need to have 990 instructional hours by the end of the year to fulfill the requirements. 

"I'm looking for a possibility of extending school days if the commissioner would allow it," he said. "And I would like to do a combination of taking some days away that were planned as holidays or vacation days and trying to use those variables to make up the time."