Chatham High Parking Lot Expansion Complete

When the Board of Education meets Monday evening, Peter Daquila, the business administrator for the School District of the Chathams, will report that the parking lot at was completed last week.

The full lot, which adds 82 spaces, is now available for use to the staff at Chatham High School, opening up some of the pre-existing 253 spaces for the high school's expanding student population. According to plans by the administration, teachers and staff members will use the lot, and the vacated spaces in the outer lot will be given over for increased student parking.

A teacher will be assigned to the lot each day between 7 and 8 a.m. and will only allow permitted parkers to enter the lot. Also, the fee for a student parking space will increase $6 per semester to $50.

Beginning in October, to the district for use by the school.

The project was originally scheduled to be completed in September, but and postponed construction.

Construction on the lot began in early August after a prolonged debate between administrators, parents, students and environmentalists. The board .

The project was awarded to Stone Creek, Inc., a Lodi-based company, for $1,622,160. The board unanimously approved the project at the .

Counseling at Chatham Schools

One item on the agenda for the Monday Board of Education meeting outlines a payment of $18,000 to Project Community Pride to provide "unlimited counseling services to students."

Project Community Pride of Chatham, Florham Park and Madison is a crisis intervention and counseling service for children and families. They work with first-time juvenile offenders and with children and teens in need of counseling for a variety of issues, including:

• alcohol or drug abuse
• anxiety
• bullying
• depression
• divorce
• family conflict
• traumatic loss
• and other serious mental health concerns.

In Other Business

According to the agenda for the Monday meeting of the Board of Education, Donna Callanan, a first grade teacher at , will retire in December. Callanan has more than 19 years of teaching experience and won a grant from the Chatham Education Foundation in 2006 and in 2010.