HAMILTON — The grades are in, and for many of Hamilton Township’s school buildings, they aren’t good.

The district’s architectural firm, Fraytak Veisz Hopkins Duthie, PC, compiled a report card that gave each of the 24 schools in the district a letter grade, which it presented to the board this week. The Trentonian obtained a copy through an Open Public Records Act request.

The report card comes as part of the district’s larger review of the structural problems it faces in its 24 schools. A preliminary estimate of the price to fix the district’s schools totaled out at $134 million over the next five years.

The firm will also work on further reports that will include cost estimates for the repairs and renovations it outlines, along with a larger capital project list for the board to review.

Board Vice President Joe Malagrino, the head of the Facilities Committee, said the committee and the district will still need to take more information into account before making decisions about the schools.

“This is still premature, we still have to digest and gather more information and figure out where we are going with this,” he said at Tuesday’s board meeting.

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Hamilton Township’s Board of Education addressed a number of long-standing issues at its meeting Tuesday night, including its aging infrastructure and financial mismanagement in the district.

Board Vice President Joe Malagrino said the district’s architect had submitted a report that graded the conditions of the district’s schools. The district is working on revising a plan to renovate and repair the district’s schools, which initially estimated the cost at $134 million.

“This is still premature, we still have to digest and gather more information and figure out where we are going with this,” he said.

Greenwood school, which had a problem with bricks falling off of its external façade earlier this year, received an “F” from the district’s architect. Another school also almost received an “F” grade from the architect, but board members did not mention the name of that school.

John Miranda, the district’s new director of facilities, said the district has also lined up a number of projects for the summer months, including renovation of Hamilton High West’s sewer system and locker room area.

“We have several large projects kicking off as soon as school ends,” he said. “There is a lot of work that has to be done here and not all of it can be done in one year.”

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Former Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo will soon report to Leavenworth, Kan., to begin serving his 38-month sentence.

It’s not the fabled federal penitentiary but a minimum security camp nearby where he will serve out his term on five federal corruption charges, attorney Jerome Ballarotto said Monday. Bencivengo will report to the facility on May 30 after a delay of close to a month from when he was supposed to report to prison.

“At this point he just wants to get it over with,” Ballarotto said.

Bencivengo was originally scheduled to report for his 38-month sentence on April 29, but a judge’s order set aside that date last month in favor of whatever date the bureau sets for him to report.

The Bureau of Prisons normally notifies inmates by letter the facility where they are supposed to report, but Bencivengo had not received that letter, the court filing said.

District Judge Anne Thompson sentenced him to 38 months in prison with two years of supervised release, a $3,000 fine and $7,400 forfeiture in March.

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HAMILTON — Donors on both sides have started plunking down cash for Hamilton Mayor Kelly Yaede and her Democratic opponent, Barbara Plumeri, even with the special election still more than six months away.

The pair raised large amounts for a municipal race — more, even than the legislative candidates for the 14th district, which has been regarded as a close race — according to state disclosures. Both took it as a sign of their support from the people of Hamilton, and their campaign.

“I’m very pleased by the support,” Yaede said. “I believe that it shows improvement in the confidence of the mayor’s position in the township.”

“They believe as I do that it is past time to clean up from the mess of the Bencivengo-Yaede years and restore ethics to town hall,” Plumeri said.

Yaede raised $109,809.95 since January and Plumeri raised $65,575. Expenses for the campaigns bring the two a little closer to each other: Yaede has $65,167.46 in her campaign account and Plumeri has $51,008. Still, the amount of cash-on-hand both have more closely resembles the war chests incumbent mayors have had in past elections than the relatively new campaigns of Yaede and Plumeri.

Both Yaede and Plumeri followed through on pledges to disclose all donations, whether or not they met the $300 threshold. The records come from the 30-day primary election report with the New Jersey Election Enforcement Commission.

“I congratulate her for joining me in doing it. It is the right thing to do,” Plumeri said.

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HAMILTON — Monday afternoon in Hamilton’s Veterans Park, Don DeZarn lit up a joint to protest the nation’s drug laws; he also wants to represent New Jersey’s 14th district in the state Senate.

DeZarn pulled the joint, which he said was marijuana, out of his sock after speaking to reporters for 15 minutes on his views on drug laws, property taxes, school choice and open government.

He was aware of the illegality; in the press release announcing the bit of civil disobedience, he said “Yes, I will be firing one up in public. Hopefully you will be able to run a story on Tuesday titled ‘State Senate candidate arrested at press conference.’”

No police officers showed up, but DeZarn spoke about his views on the drug, which he thinks should be legalized and regulated in the same way that alcohol and cigarettes are.

“Who is this for? This is for all of my brothers and sisters who are being held prisoners of war by our government as a result of our war on drugs,” he said after taking his second hit.

DeZarn is running on the Libertarian Party ticket against Democratic Sen. Linda Greenstein and Republican Former Sen. Peter Inverso. Greenstein has held the seat since 2010. He said he came to his views on marijuana after seeing the way the government handled drug enforcement spending.

“It’s just something that I see as a tremendous waste of taxpayer money,” he said. “It’s complete insanity that we spend that type of money when there are far worse things out there. ... There isn’t really a good reason for it to be illegal in my mind.”

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