Emerson • Hillsdale • Montvale • Park Ridge • River Vale • Township of Washington • Westwood • Woodcliff Lake
PA S C AC K VA L L E Y ’ S H O M E TO W N N E W S PA P E R
VOLUME 25 ISSUE 41
HILLSDALE
BOE EYES TRENDS IN HOUSING,
Updating five-year look at population; could drive a new middle schoolʼs amenities
RACE
DECEMBER 27, 2021
DELIVERING ON STEAM District robotics team building a ladder up
See HILLSDALE on page 254
DO DISTRICT TEACHERS, PARENTS WANTARMED GUARDS?
Early numbers on survey back idea of SLEO IIIs; results due after holidays BY MICHAEL OLOHAN OF PASCACK PRESS
BY MICHAEL OLOHAN OF PASCACK PRESS
The Board of Education voted, Dec. 13, to approve an $18,000 study to look at the local districtʼs population trends and likely impacts on the districtʼs two grammar schools and George G. White Middle School. The study is timely: the nearly 100-year-old George G. White Middle School is being considered for replacement. The study likely will help board members decide on the size and amenities needed in a new middle school. A bond referendum could be held in March 2023 should due diligence efforts show no problems and the Board of Education approves moving forward by March 2022. This would allow time for school officials to apply for state aid and undertake public outreach throughout 2022, officials said. The board approved the study, 4-0, by resolution on Dec. 14, said Board Administrator Sacha Pouliot. Member Nicole Klas was absent. Superintendent Robert Lombardy told Pascack Press that findings are due no later than March 2022. Lombardy said that a demographics study is performed every five years to allow the district to “reasonably project” enrollment and that the last one was undertaken in 2016–2017. The update will be done by Statistical Forecasting LLC of Dorset, Vermont, which offers
TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON
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Student organizers Hills sophomore Eliza Krigsman, Valley senior Donald Lafferty, and Hills senior Nathan Lee, members of the world-champion Pascack Pi-oneers robotics team, helped plan and run the team’s annual Fall for STEAM Fair on Dec. 11. Families flocked to it.
BY JOHN SNYDER OF PASCACK PRESS
IDS OF ALL AGES joined Pascack Pi-oneers FIRST Robotics Team 1676 for its annual Fall for STEAM Fair on Saturday,
Dec. 11. Foot traffic was joyously heavy at the event, at Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale, where the teamʼs 90 members (from Hills and Valley) had collaborated to set up 30 interactive tables of science, TOP: JOHN SNYDER PHOTO
technology, engineering, art, and math activities for special visitors — who had parents and grandparents in tow. Masks were required. A demonstration on “elephant toothpaste,” promising a giant foaming reaction, fizzled at first. “Thatʼs OK,” said the teamʼs student demonstrator. “Weʼll just take a step back, check our work, and run it again.” The fair, which promotes disciplines essential in
Continued on page 20
Preliminary and unofficial results from a Westwood Regional School District survey on hiring special law enforcement officers — known as SLEOs — for each of six district schools shows that most parents and educators appear to favor their hiring, said the school board president at the Dec. 16 meeting, at Hurley Theatre. However, final survey results were due after Dec. 21, the survey deadline that falls after press time for this issue. School Board President Frank Romano III told parents Dec. 16 that a five-question survey, sent via SurveyMonkey, was “to get a sense” of where the public stands on hiring armed security for schools. He said he would email out final survey results and post them on the district website. He also defended the surveyʼs integrity, and the boardʼs transparency, after a half-dozen parents spoke up with critical remarks on both. And he apologized for sending the survey out on the anniversary of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, where a lone See ARMED on page 234
OH, THEY BROUGHT IT!
B ck in time...
Congratulations to the 7/8 Our Lady of Mercy Saints Gold volleyball team, undefeated 2021 Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) Bergen County champs. SEE PAGE 12
Westwood’s first bank, the First National at Westwood and Center avenues, opened in 1908. Its ad heading into 1929, the year inaugurating the Great Depression, touted optimism. SEE PAGE 4
