I’d like to introduce myself: I am Jo Ann Groeger, and this is my third year serving on the Board of Education. I serve as the chairperson for the community relations committee, sit on the personnel committee and am the board liaison for Lawrence Township Education Foundation, Direct Link and Mercer County Vocational School.
I would first like to thank Laura Waters for her reporting for the board in this column. She has done an outstanding job, and I will have big shoes to fill—not that she has big feet!
We have two new board members: Dana Drake, serving a one-year term, and Pepper Evans, serving a three-year term. Mr. Michael Horan was also re-elected for a three year term. The board welcomes the new members and would like to thank Leon Kaplan for his nine years and Murali Aiyar for his two years of dedication and commitment to our schools and the children of Lawrence Township.
In the wonderful news department, Lawrence has earned state recognition for its Character Education program. Lawrence High School and the entire district, as a whole, were honored by NJ Alliance for Social Emotional and Character Development for our character education programs. We will retain this honor through 2017. This reflects what a fantastic staff we have and how they value character education for our students. To learn more about Character Education in our schools, please go online to ltps.org, click on news and then click on Character Ed. This short video will bring it to life for you (thanks to the LTEF- snippets grant).
The 2013-2014 school year has already been very difficult weather wise with snow and ice storms that seem to have hit us nearly every week (and sometimes twice weekly). With numerous closings, it is now necessary to reschedule seven days. Students will now attend classes on May 23, June 6 and June 13, days that were previously scheduled as no school.
Additionally Feb. 14, originally scheduled as a professional development day for staff, was rescheduled to be a regular day of classes for students but resulted in another closing. Monday, April 14; Tuesday, April 15 and Wednesday, April 16, originally set as days off during spring break, will now be regular school days for students and staff.
Jo Ann L. Groeger is a member of the Lawrence Board of Education. Her email is jgroeger@ltps.org.
