New Assistant Principal Appointed, $34,000 in Grants Announced for Lawrence Township Schools & More...

The appointment of a new assistant principal for Lawrence Middle School, the creation of a new committee to study the township school district’s extra-curricular offerings, and the announcement that the district’s solar program will generate  more revenue through the sale of additional energy credits were among the business conducted at Lawrence Township Board of Education’s monthly meeting held last week.

Also during the meeting the announced the awarding of over $34,000 in new grants for programs in township schools, several students were recognized for academic achievements, and a report was given about the field trip all fourth-grade students took last month to learn about Lawrence Township history.

An audio recording of the entire Nov. 14 meeting, as well as audio from previous meetings, can be found on the school district’s website by clicking here. A copy of the official minutes for the Nov. 14 meeting can be found by clicking here.

Assistant Principal

During the Nov. 14 meeting school board members approved the appointment of Frederick “PJ” Barrett as Lawrence Middle School’s new assistant principal, filling the vacancy created when in October. Barrett began his new position on Nov. 15.

An alumnus of who holds a master’s degree in educational leadership and a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from The College of New Jersey, Barrett had served as a physical education teacher at Eldridge Park Elementary School since 1996.

He received the Thomas Vidola Adapted Physical Education Award in 2003, was presented with Eldridge Park School’s Governor’s Teacher of the Year Award in 2004, and was inducted into Lawrence High School’s Hall of Honor in 2005.

Barrett’s 2011-2012 annual salary of $86,500 as assistant principal will prorated to $65,740.   

Extra-Curricular Committee

Also during the meeting, school board President Laura Waters announced that board members Jo Ann Groeger and Kevin Van Hise would be heading up a new ad hoc committee to study the district’s extra-curricular offerings.

“The purpose of this committee is to see how we can best-support the development of the whole child,” Waters explained. “Our school day goes, say, in this building [Lawrence High School], from 7:45 to 2:45. But our kids’ lives don’t stop at 2:45. And we’ve stated as a board that we want to make sure that they have connections to our district that go beyond the classroom hours. That’s always been a struggle as to how to support that financially and in an equitable manner so that all kids have the opportunity [to participate].”

Business Administrator’s Report

School district Business Administrator Thomas Eldridge reported that the district had started the process of preparing its budget for the 2012-2013 school year and that the district would be having two meetings seeking input from parents about what they feel the district’s budget priorities should be. (.)

Eldridge also reported that the audit of the district’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011, had been completed. (The complete report and audit are available from the school district website by clicking here to download the PDF file of the agenda of the Nov. 14 meeting. The report begins on Page 155 of the PDF file. The audit, by Wall-based Robert A. Hulsart & Co., begins on Page 295 of the file.)   

Eldridge advised the board that the district was again soliciting bids for its project to build a fiber-optic network linking township schools. At the Oct. 10 school board meeting, earlier bids were all rejected for exceeding the project’s budget.  

Eldridge further reported that the district would soon be selling an additional 416 Solar Renewable Energy Certificates to generate further revenue from the solar panels previously installed on the roofs of all township schools.

At the Oct. 10 board meeting Eldridge noted that, after , the district generated another $526,000 in revenue through two sales of solar credits in August and September, and that an additional 1,000 solar panels are being installed on school roofs.

In announcing those solar credit sales in October, Eldridge also noted that in August the district refinanced its debt issued in 2003 for school alternations and additions projects and, as a result, will save $890,000 over a 12-year period.

Grants and Honors

Representatives of the Lawrence Township Education Foundation appeared before the school board at the Nov. 14 meeting to announce that, as part of the foundation’s Fall 2011 grant cycle, a total of $34,264 was being awarded through 11 grants to township schools. Click here to see a full list of the programs being funded by the grants.

: Jesse Dubin, Brian Hamilton, Usman Haq, Caitlin Lavery, Abel McDaniels, Kiara Ott, Prarthi Patel, Alison Titus and Edward Zeng were honored for being named Commended Students in the 2012 National Merit Scholarship Program; Elizabeth Hernandez was honored for being named a Scholar in the 2011-2012 National Hispanic Recognition Program; and Taylor Metelus was honored for being named an Outstanding Participant in the 2012 National Achievement Scholarship Program.

And the school board heard about the successful during October, with township historian Dennis Waters and Dan Ben-Asher, editor of “A Guide to Lawrenceville’s Historic Landmarks,” serving as tour guides.

Waters urged the school board to find the funding to make the field trip an annual event. Among the sites visited on the trip were the 1761 Brearley House, the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church cemetery, the Lawrenceville School campus, a Revolutionary War battle site at the Shabakunk Creek and the Delaware & Raritan Canal.

“Having seen what you’ve seen and heard what you’ve heard about this program, you surely will agree it would be a real shame if the 2011-2012 turned out to be the only fourth-grade class ever to have this experience. So with that in mind I would like to ask the board to find a way to provide transportation so that future fourth-grade classes will be able to experience the educational value that so many have worked so hard to create. So if you can find your way clear to make this an annual event, I can pledge to you that the historical society and the township historian will provide the resources need to institutionalize the curriculum and make this into an important educational and community event for years to come,” said Waters who, in addition to being township historian, serves as vice president of the Lawrence Historical Society.

District Improvements

Board member Thomas Patrick reported during the meeting that resurfacing of the athletic track at Lawrence High School was finished, and that installation of the new boiler at Eldridge Park Elementary School had been completed.

Teacher’s Aide Arrest

While the school board did not directly comment of the in Ewing Township, school board President Laura Waters did not shy away from the issue.

“I see a lot of [special education] parents out there and I don’t want to not acknowledge that we had a really hard week and that we’re all stricken by what happened,” she said during the meeting. “We spend so much time up here measuring everything. We measure our student output in the form of test scores and we look at dollar figures every day. I don’t know how you measure safety and humanity. I don’t know how you do that. But I do know that this community – and it is a community – is committed to protecting our kids and I think that if you want to come up and talk about it, we’re limited legally in what we can say, but we’re here to listen and we’re really there with you. It may not have felt like that that way every moment, but it’s true. We really are. I just wanted to say that.”

School District Violence and Vandalism Report

At the Oct. 10 school board meeting, board members were presented with the district’s annual Violence and Vandalism report. (A copy of this report can be viewed as a PDF file from the media box above.)

The report shows that during the 2010-2011 school year, there were 32 incidents of violence reported at township schools, six incidents of vandalism, five incidents involving weapons and nine incidents involving drugs. Also included are details on the numbers of students who received suspensions. Statistics are provided for all school years dating back to 2003-2004.

“The good news is that when I look at the violence and vandalism over the last five years we have decreased in the number of incidents,” Superintendent Crystal Lovell told the board on Oct. 10. “We have remained relatively flat from last year to this year in terms of vandalism, weapons and substance abuse, and a little bit up with the violence.”