Volume117 Number 34 THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2004 75 Cents Local Principals saying couple new rooms ready By Harry Trumbore were still caulking and capping arrested of The Item more than 100 windows at the school this week, Alfieri said all Public school principals are of the new classrooms should be By Harry Trumbore confident students arriving for ready Sept. 7. of The Item the first day of school on Sept. 7, A total of nine projects have the day after Labor Day, will be been carried out at the school, in- A township couple who ran a able to use all of the new class- cluding building an addition that real estate and immigration prac- rooms being built as part of the houses six new classrooms and tice in Linden were arrested Aug. districtwide construction project. the school’s new band/chorus 12 and charged with stealing Local school administrators room. The library also has been more than $230,000 they were throughout the summer held expanded by 30 percent. holding in trust for several their breath over whether the “It’s a big change from what clients. classrooms would be completed, we had,” Alfieri said. “I think we According to township and as recently as their Aug. 17 have a facility to meet the needs police, Lester Czapelski, 39, meeting, Board of Education of our kids for the next decade.” and his wife, Marcia, 39, were members debated approval of a Hartshorn principal Ronald arrested at their Whitney Road number of construction change Castaldo said work at his school home. The arrests were made orders and the progress of the is 90 to 95 percent done. The by representatives of the Union construction. front doors were being replaced County Sheriff’s office, accom- Michael Cahill is the principal this week and the new four-room panied by township police. of Millburn Middle School, addition needs to be inspected. In a statement released Aug. which is the primary focus of a The entire school has new light- 23, Union County Prosecutor board-sponsored citizen’s study efficient and heat-effective win- Theodore J. Romankow said the of future space needs. For this dows. couple is charged with second year at least, the principal be- “The contractor met with me degree theft by failure to make lieves he has the space crunch every day,” Castaldo said. required disposition and second handled. “Nobody gets nervous when you degree misapplication of en- The incoming sixth grade tops know what’s going on.” trusted property. 400 pupils, Cahill said, and has Ted Lindenberg, principal of “What we are alleging, essen- necessitated hiring an additional South Mountain School, said 90 tially, is that the defendants team of five teachers. percent of work to renovate and took money given to them to “We’re using every available add four classrooms to the empty hold to purchase a condomini- space,” he said. “There is no sur- lower portion of the school was um in Roselle Park and a pri- viving space.” carried out by the end of June. vate home in Linden and then The middle school has re- “This will be my first opening withdrew money from these claimed three classrooms in the day at South Mountain, but I trust funds and wrote checks for space formerly using by the inte- have the same enthusiasm as themselves instead,” Ro- grated pre-school program, every opening day before,” said mankow said. which has been moved to South Lindenberg, who first came to Executive Union County Mountain School. An additional South Mountain in February on Prosecutor Robert O’Leary the room has been carved out of the an interim basis, then was named couple is due back in court library area. permanent principal in the Sept. 3 for arraignment. The planned replacement of spring. According to reports, the lockers has been put on hold in Glenwood principal Ross Czapelskis’ legal practice in order to have hallways clean and Kasun said construction work Linden was searched and com- unobstructed when students has come down to the wire and puter files, bank records and begin school, the principal said. workers are only now beginning trust account records were Banks of lockers will be replaced to move some of their heavy seized in December by the Spe- John Montalvo/staff photographer during school breaks and vaca- equipment away. Kasun is wait- cial Prosecutions Unit of the FINISHING TOUCHES—George Dixon, principal of Wyoming School, center, surveys work tions. ing for inspectors to approve the Prosecutor’s Office. being done to the new front entrance of the school, a four-classroom annex. Dixon and other Responses to the new four- four-classroom addition so An attempt by The Item to public school principals will welcome students back to school Sept. 7. classroom annex in front of teachers can move in next week. contact the Czapelskis at their Wyoming School have been pos- “All the furniture is here in the office this week was unsuccess- itive, said Wyoming principal hallways,” he said. ful. George Dixon. The annex gives Kasun said he hired two new Both Lester and Marcia Cza- the school two new fifth grade teachers this year and made the pelski have been temporarily Frankel joins hunger strike classrooms, a first grade class- point that two years ago, he had suspended from the practice of room and a vocal music room. to hire 13 new teachers before law by the Supreme Court of mere Terrace joined about 70 Sudan every hour. There have been 16 different the start of school. By Patricia Harris New Jersey and have been sus- of The Item other students around the coun- The strike called for interna- classroom reassignments for the The new addition will house a pended by the Board of Immi- try who signed up for the strike, tional intervention in the ethnic new year, Dixon said. music room, one second grade gration, according to the U.S. With his participation in a which took place the weekend of conflict occurring in Darfur, a “Teachers are chomping at the class and two fifth grade classes. Department of Justice Execu- recent hunger strike, a college Aug. 6 through 8. He gathered region about the size of Texas. In bit to get in and set up their class- However, Kasun said, two fifth tive Office for Immigration student from the township is with a group of friends in a recent months, according to rooms,” he added. “We’re ready, grade classes still will be housed Review. seeking to do his part to protest house at his college, Middlebury strike organizers, Darfur has but we wish we had more time to in trailers beside the school. “If convicted of the most seri- the genocide and slavery occur- College in Middlebury, Vt. The been the site of brutal killing, as get ready.” Keith Neigel, principal of ous charges, they both face sen- ring in the North African country strike lasted for 42 hours, which government-supported Arab At Deerfield School, principal Millburn High School, said some tences of five to 10 years,” of Sudan. organizers said symbolizes the John Alfieri said work is 90 per- O’Leary said. Jonathan Frankel of Winder- 42 people who are dying in the Continued on Page B8 cent complete. Although workers Continued on Page B8 Art advisers take full inventory of township’s collection hensive inventory of the town- ferent lists of the township’s Pieces ship’s collection. holdings, although none were A copy of the finished product complete. In addition, she said, continue will be kept in the township new technologies have made it clerk’s office, and the inventory possible to import color images to come in will be put on computer and up- into text documents, and thereby dated as needed. The township’s provide a concise record for each Art Advisory Committee, a group piece. By Patricia Harris of The Item of approximately eight volun- Kalman Oravetz, a longtime teers, will keep another copy. member of the Art Advisory Com- For two local students intern- Samantha started with a list of mittee who now serves as an ad- ing at Town Hall this summer, pieces and visited Town Hall, the viser, said the project is necessary finding all the pieces of artwork Bauer Community Center in for insurance, as well as display, the township owns has proven to Taylor Park, the Millburn Free purposes. be something of a treasure hunt. Public Library and the police and “We want to know what we Samantha Graebner, a Millburn fire departments to find them. The have and where,” he said, “with an High School senior with an inter- township also has set aside a spe- eye to moving the pieces around.” est in art, has been cataloguing cial room in the basement of The township’s art collection the approximately 100 pieces of Town Hall and equipped it with was begun in the late 1980s, when artwork the township has col- storage racks and a dehumidifier the township solicited donations lected over the years. Working to protect the artwork housed on the theme of “America the with fellow intern Natalia there. Beautiful,” Oravetz said. About 30 Wojcik, she visited various sites “We were able to find almost pieces were collected at that time, around town to take digital pho- every piece,” Samantha reported, and the collection has grown tographs of the artwork. Each noting she has spent about 30 through the years. John Montalvo/staff photographer photo will be augmented with hours on the project. The collection includes paint- ART FOR ART’S SAKE—Diana Hoffman, chairman of the Art Advisory Committee, left, joins information—such as the Diana Hoffman, chairman of ings, sculptures, photographs and Samantha Graebner at Town Hall beneath two of the pieces in the township’s art collection.