'Cake Recess' Thanks Administrators for Work After Sandy

This week's Hanover Park Regional school board meeting started with a brief "cake recess" to thank administrators for their work getting schools ready to open after Superstorm Sandy.

Board president Joan Seery said board members were presenting the cake to thank district administrators for their hard work all the time, and especially for in the aftermath of the storm.

Superintendent Carol Grossi said some administrators visited the schools, including Hanover Park Principal Thomas Callanan and Whippany Park Principal John Manning, to survey the damage and communicated in conference calls. In her case, she was making the call from her car amid power outages.

"Everything was thought of, everything was covered," she said. "If I did not have them doing what they did, we could not have gotten to where we were opening on Monday."

The damage to the schools is still being tallied. Among the problems was some water damage to a Whippany Park classroom and some of the equipment in it.

It was a "wonderful team effort," Grossi said. "That's why I love working in this district with all of you."