By Dana Drake
On behalf of the board, I’d like to offer a warm welcome to the newest member of the Lawrence Township Public Schools (LTPS) Board of Education (BOE), Joyce Scott.
Joyce will join current board members Glenn Collins, Pepper Evans, Mike Horan, Jo Ann Groeger, Max Ramos, Kevin Van Hise, Laura Waters and me, when she is sworn in at the annual reorganization meeting on Jan. 6.
The new board will then elect a president and vice president. Our regular monthly board meeting will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m.
I would like to take a moment to thank out-going board member Dr. Tom Patrick, who served nine years on the board. Tom has been a great asset to the district throughout his three consecutive terms, sitting on various committees such as Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment & Development; Negotiations; and Personnel.
But most notably, it was the Finance Committee, which he chaired for several years, where Tom made a great impact with his expertise. Tom, your knowledge and humor will surely be missed.
At a special meeting on Nov. 23, the board met to approve the Lawrence Township Education Association (LTEA) contract, which the LTEA ratified on Nov. 11.
Now that the negotiation process is complete, the Board and LTEA are able to share terms of the new agreement with the public.
General terms of the new three-year contract, expiring Jun. 30, 2017, include salary increases of 2.6 percent for 2014-2015, 2.65 percent for 2015-2016, and 2.7 percent for 2016-2017; an increase in Extra Duty Pay stipends of 2 percent; and maintaining the Tier 4 level of Chapter 78 (New Jersey legislation regarding benefits) for employee contributions to health insurance premiums.
In last month’s column I mentioned that the state Department of Education had released state-level results of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test first given last spring.
Since then we have received both district and individual student scores. The individual student PARCC test score reports were mailed home prior to the start of the winter break. Parents will notice they look quite different than the NJASK student results received in previous years.
As a reminder, to help interpret the new PARCC report format, Andrew Zuckerman, director of Instructional Services, has created an online presentation which can be viewed on the district’s YouTube channel (youtube.com/ltpsnews).
If you have a child who will be five years old on or before Oct. 1, 2016, he/she is eligible to attend Kindergarten in LTPS beginning in September, 2016. Kindergarten registration for the 2016/2017 school year begins Jan. 4. Start the pre-registration process online (registration.ltps.org).
Reminder, schools will be closed Monday, Jan. 18 in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Dana Drake is a member of the Lawrence Township Board of Education. Her email is ddrake@ltps.org.
