Lawrence Township Public Schools News Roundup

Lawrence Township Public Schools recently released the following news items:

LHS Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

The Lawrence High School Athletic Hall of Fame will induct its fourth class on Saturday, Oct. 29, at the Mercer Oaks banquet facility in West Windsor. The class includes athletes John Schneider, Mike Savino, Paul O'Neil, Mickey Forker, Mark Polakowski, Enechi Modu, Annette Frascella and Bob Whartenby; coaches Len Weister, Shannon Carroll, and Jim Csogi; special contributor Dick Beech; and the 1972 Football team. To purchase tickets, contact Mick Cimorelli at mcimorelli@ltps.org or call the LHS Athletic Office at (609) 671-5510 extension 2650.

National Merit Scholarship Commended Students

Lawrence High School announced that Jesse Dubin, Brian Hamilton, Usman Haq, Caitlin Lavery, Abel McDaniels, Kiara Ott, Prarthi Patel, Alison Titus and Edward Zeng have been named Commended Students in the 2012 National Merit Scholarship Program. A Letter of Commendation from the school and National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), which conducts the program, will be presented by the principal to these scholastically talented seniors.

About 34,000 Commended Students nationwide are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise. Although they will not continue in the 2012 competition for National Merit Scholarships, Commended Students placed among the top 5 percent of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2011 competition by taking the 2010 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).

LHS Student Recognized in the National Hispanic Recognition Program

Lawrence High School announced that Elizabeth Hernandez was named a Scholar in the 2011-2012 National Hispanic Recognition Program (NHRP). This year, the NHRP is recognizing nearly 5,000 students selected from a pool of over 235,000 students who took the 2010 PSAT/NMSQT and identified themselves as Hispanic/Latino. Students with GPAs of 3.5 or higher are designated Scholars, and those with GPAs of 3.0 to 3.49 as Honorable Mentions.

LHS Student Named Outstanding Participant in National Achievement Program

Lawrence High's Taylor Metelus was named an Outstanding Participant in the 2012 National Achievement Scholarship Program. Based on performance on the 2010 PSAT, 3,100 students were designated Outstanding Participants by scoring in the top 3 percent of more than 160,000 black Americans who requested consideration in the program.

LHS Alum Named One of Top 5 Educators in Nation and Appears on Rachel Ray

Ryan Stein, Lawrence High School Class of 2000, was recently named one of the top five educators in the nation, earning him a trip to New York City, a $2,500 Jones New York shopping spree at Macy's, $1,000 in school supplies from Office Max for his fourth-grade classroom in Richmond, Va., and an appearance on the Oct. 6 Rachel Ray broadcast.

Rachel Ray's producers and film crew traveled to Richmond to film Ryan's day at Pinchback Elementary School where they interviewed Ryan's current fourth-grade students as well as some of his students from last year. Students learn their history lessons with a new History MVP curriculum created by Ryan and which has been implemented in over 300 schools in Virginia. Demonstrating the usage of this interactive software program for the film crew, Ryan and the class sang and danced to “Time of Your Life” as they learned about Virginia geography.

Ryan has taught in Henrico County in Virginia for seven years, was recently named one of Virginia's elite eight teachers by the Virginia State Lottery, and was selected as one of the Top 20 Teachers in Henrico County by the Henrico Citizen. He also teaches college students at Randolph Macon College and Liberty University and is the head varsity basketball coach at Glen Allen High School.

LTPS Celebrate ‘Week of Respect’

As per New Jersey’s “Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights,” the week beginning with the first Monday in October of each year is designated as the “Week of Respect” in schools throughout the state. The Lawrence Township Public Schools observed the week of Oct. 3-7 by providing age appropriate instruction focusing on preventing harassment, intimidation, or bullying. A list of activities that took place in township schools that week can be found by clicking here.

For example, activities at Ben Franklin Elementary School included:

• Monday – The Lawrence community came together to help kick off the Ben Franklin character program and release the BF school theme, "Take Care." Lawrence High's Red Scare performed “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” and lots of other tunes, while the LHS Cheerleaders led BF students in a Take Care cheer.
• Tuesday and Wednesday – This year's Ben Franklin school characters – Ben, Frank and Lynn (get it?!) – were revealed. These characters will help students remember rules of the hallways, bathrooms and cafeteria throughout the year.
• Thursday - Every student helped break a world record by for Read for the Record. Because of the students' efforts, Ben Franklin enabled 480 books to be donated to students in need.
• Friday – Ben Franklin students kicked off their own Environmental Protection Agency initiative with a school assembly, which included a special rap, “One Action. One Change” created by BF staff and students.

Mr. Dauber on Twitter

Parents can now follow Lawrence high School Upper School Principal Jon Dauber on Twitter @JonDauber. He will post Career Academy updates as well as other things related to education in Lawrence Township, New Jersey and the world beyond.