District officials outlined enrollment figures, facility maintenance and more at the BOE’s Sept. 20 meeting.
It’s a few weeks into the new school year and Mt. Laurel school district officials are touting another successful start for students and staff.
That was the news out of the Sept. 20 meeting of the Board of Education, where Sharon Vitella, assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and assessment, gave the board an update on the back to school season.
Vitella noted that enrollment for the new 2016–2017 school year had changed only slightly from the 2015–2016 school year, with a minor decrease of four students district-wide from 4,233 to 4,229.
Vitella said enrollment has been fairly consistent for the past few years, but there can be instances where enrollment at one of the district’s six elementary schools increases more than others. In those cases, Vitella said the district works to keep class sizes smaller and will add more sections if need be, whereas an increase in fifth and sixth graders at Hartford School or seventh and eighth graders at Harrington Middle School are easier to manage.
Vitella said teachers prepared for the new year with days of professional development, including a trip to the Franklin Institute to learn about new teaching methods.
Vitella also said orientation sessions were held for teachers who are new to the district. She noted that even those who have teaching experience elsewhere still attend the new teacher orientation to learn about specifics of Mt. Laurel schools.
According to district human resources manager Susan Henry, during the summer the district dealt with 19 staff retirements and resignations from the end of last school year. Henry said the district lost 14 teachers, four child study team members and one principal.
Henry said the district continues to recruit from several online education-oriented employment websites, and as something new this year, the district went to job fairs at Rowan University and The College of New Jersey. Henry said the district had 1,653 applications between the beginning of June and the end of August.
In regard to maintenance, school business administrator Robert Wachter Jr. said the roof replacement project at Hartford School was completed over the summer. However, Wachter said a few minor repairs are still required before final payment will be made to contractors.
Wachter said the district has also started testing its schools for lead, per a new state law. He said the district started with its oldest operating school of Hillside Elementary, which opened in 1954.
Watcher said results from Hillside and all other schools will be shared with the public and on the district’s website when available.
Overall, Superintendent George Rafferty said district staff and administrators reported this year as one of their best school year openings.
“Comparing to other openings I’ve experienced, this was a tremendous opening. It was a very busy summer for all of us and seemed to blow by very quickly, but I think it was a testament to how hard everybody worked here in Mt. Laurel as a team,” Rafferty said.
It other news:
As she does with the start of every school year, Vitella also reported on the district’s nursing services for the previous year.
According to Vitella, there were 1,558 students in the district who received attention for basic health concerns such as a scrape or fall, and 339 students deemed “medically complex,” who required daily treatments or monitoring for needs such as immune disorders or asthma.
Vitella said there were another 263 students who were considered “medically fragile” and had complicated health-care issues such as seizure disorders or insulin pumps, and there were two students who needed “skilled nursing care” where nurses from outside the district might be brought in to travel with students throughout the day.
Once again, Vitella also praised the school district’s continued practice of having a nurse available in every school building.
“It’s not required by the state, but honestly the issues that could arise so quickly, to not have a nurse in the building to me would be frightening,” Vitella said.
