Bellmawr’s Early Childhood Center Opens

Despite delays, the doors to Bellmawr School District’s Early Childhood Center (ECC) finally opened for students on November 16.

As was previously reported, historic fill (dinner plates and bottles) had been unearthed during the early excavation work at Bellmawr Park.

Because of that, construction had to stop while the site was remediated.

The final cost of the soil remediation is still unavailable. However, during its meeting last week, the BOE approved a change order to Mobilease in the amount of $450,682 for the soil remediation.

Board secretary, Amy Capriotti, was asked if she was able to give a final cost of the remediation and she responded that she could not.

Capriotti explained that the district is waiting to receive a final report from the environmental consultant, Environmental Design, Inc. (EDI) and that EDI was recently back on-site doing more work at the ECC.

She said she could not speculate a dollar figure for EDI’s work, nor does she know when EDI is expected to send a bill.

During the business portion of the meeting, all motions were approved, including:

The BOE passed Resolutions for student tuition placements and transportation.

The BOE also approved a stipend in the amount of $2,000 for the facilities director and also a stipend in the amount of $1,000 to the support technician for working extra hours on the ECC project.

In other matters, the BOE heard a presentation about LinkIt, the data assessment tool for students.

The BOE will meet again on December 16 at 5 pm for its work session. The regular meeting will follow at 6 pm in the Bell Oaks Media Center.

*Article originally appeared in the November 26, 2015 edition of the Gloucester City News.