To submit school announcements, click on image.
A new system will be in place this year for Haverhill school students who take buses to school.
Those students will be issued a transportation card which will be swiped when getting on and off the bus. Speaking to the Haverhill School Committee last week, Superintendent Margaret Marotta said the new program will go a long way in easing anxiety when a child does not get off the bus when expected.
“One of the most frightening things for me as a superintendent is when I get a call that a student can’t be located. Fortunately, it usually ends up being nothing, but it’s quite a few minutes of really, fear as we try to figure it out,” she said.
Haverhill Public Schools Transportation Director Elizabeth Murphy Cannata said the program is part of the school department’s updating of various safety protocols.
“So, our new system is the Zonar Z-Pass System. It allows us to be able to tell where the children swipe on and swipe off. Every student in the City of Haverhill is going to be getting a card and they double as lunch cards to be scanned in for their lunch meals,” she explained.
Cannata said the cards will be handed out to kindergarten and first grade students as soon as school begins and she expects to have a card in every student’s hand by the end of September. She explained, once the program is in place, should a parent call concerned because their child did not get off the bus, a check of the system will tell them where that student is in real time. She emphasized that the program is a secure system which can be accessed only by school personnel.
Marotta said it may take a couple of weeks get the program working smoothly and asked for patience from parents while any kinks are worked out.
Haverhill School Committee member Toni Sapienza-Donais. (Courtesy photograph.)
In a separate matter, committee member Toni Sapienza-Donais reported a number of complaints about the lack of air conditioning in classrooms located on the third floor of the John C. Tilton School.
Assistant Superintendent Michael J. Pfifferling responded the school’s electrical system is far too old to handle the requirements of a modern a/c system and the whole system must be replaced.
“Mr. Dorrance is prepared to go out to bid right now for a new 600 amp service, some of which is over 100 years old. Once we have everything in place, it is going to take four consecutive days to install the new service. What that means is there will be no power to the building for those four days,” he said.
Pfifferling said the plan is to begin the process over the school Christmas break and finish wiring classrooms during the winter break in February.