Governor Christie Visits Berkeley Elementary School

Governor Chris Christie visited fifth grade students from Ms. Magliato's and Ms. Finkelstein's classes at Berkeley Elementary School Tuesday.

The governor fielded questions from students on subjects ranging from his favorite hobbies — reading, since he doesn't have time to coach his kids' baseball or softball teams — to plans for a run at the presidency — "We'll see."

Christie also spoke to reporters about the state's continuing efforts to recover from Hurricane Sandy, and the possible problems a forecast Nor'easter could cause for that recovery.

He praised school districts like Westwood, which had held combined sessions at two schools Monday, and at one school Tuesday, because of ongoing power outages.

"Getting kids back to school is an important part of our return to normalcy," Christie said.

Westwood Regional Superintendent Geoffrey Zoeller announced Sunday that students from George School would attend class at Washington School and students from Brookside would attend class at Berkeley School Monday because of the outages. The district also canceled planned days off for Election Day Tuesday and the NJEA convention Thursday and Friday.

Christie said other school districts should try more creative ideas like Westwood to get their students back in class. About 40 percent of the state's schools had still not reopened Tuesday, he said.

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