Morris School District Preps for Delayed Start

Town-wide power outages, as well as damage to the ground level of the Alexander Hamilton School, influenced the decision of the Morris School District to suspend the opening of the 2011-12 school year by one day.

Schools will now open on Wednesday.

According to a press release from the district, flood damage ravaged several rooms in the , including the auditorium, gymnasium and several classrooms on the school’s first floor. The school, in addition to Normandy Park and Woodland schools, was also without power for much of the week.

Those weren’t the only schools without power. As of Wednesday afternoon, and Hillcrest School were still without power. The high school also saw its football field and swimming pool damaged, although the latter is suspected to have been caused by the recent earthquake, and not by Hurricane Irene.

Fortunately, the impacts of the storm and the earthquake do not carry too much of a financial burden for the district or Morristown residents.

“Our insurance coverage is extensive and we will be able to recover the vast majority of costs associated with all cleanup and repairs required as a result of the flood damage,” noted Morris School District Business Administrator Christine Kelly. “And fortunately, administrators in charge at the time the high school pool was installed had the foresight to include coverage for the unlikely event of an earthquake.”

Cleanup, particularly at flood-damaged Hamilton, began on Monday, when school personnel began to remove classroom materials from the affected areas. Repairs and renovations to the school are expected to last into the school year, and classes that would normally be held in the effected area will be moved to the school’s upper level.

Although the damage caused by Hurricane Irene has certainly inconvenienced the district, Superintendent of Schools Thomas Ficarra feels fortunate that the damage from the storm was not as bad as it could have been.

“Considering the severity of this storm and the damage sustained in parts of our community and throughout the state, we are in relatively good shape,” said Ficarra, . “The damage to Alexander Hamilton School and the turf field are the only areas in our district affected by the storm and we expect each of these to be completely repaired within a relatively short period of time.”