The Mt. Laurel School District used its October meeting to report another drop in the amount of violence, vandalism, substance abuse, weapons and bullying offenses in the district for the first half of 2015.
From Jan. 1 through June 30, the school district reported only 10 incidents of violence, vandalism, substance abuse, weapons and bullying offenses, down from 12 incidents in the same period in 2014 and down further from 19 incidents in the same period of 2013.
Of the 10 incidents in the first of 2015, all were related to harassment, intimidation or bullying.
There were no incidents during that time related to violence, vandalism, substance abuse or weapon possessions, as opposed to that same time period in 2014 when there was one incident of violence, one case of vandalism and two cases of weapon possessions.
Even then, those 2014 weapons cases only involved incidents of small items such as a Scout pocketknife being brought to school accidentally.
Interim Superintendent Dr. Sharon Vitella credits the drops to principals and assistant principals in all the buildings working hard toward preventative programs and strategies with students.
“I think these results show that we’re having a positive impact with kids because these incidents are very low,” Vitella said.
Vitella also spoke about the Week of Respect and Violence Awareness Week activities throughout the district’s schools, but noted the district performs respect and violence awareness and character building activities throughout the year.
“There is a different focus perhaps on these weeks, but I think Mt. Laurel can be very proud of the work that we do on an ongoing basis with helping kids understand what roles and responsibilities we have as members of the community,” Vitella said.
In other news:
• Vitella and the board once again thanked the township for its work in getting election polling places moved out of school buildings, starting with the upcoming election on Nov. 3.
“That was always a security issue and a safety concern and so we’re happy that was able to be accomplished,” Vitella said.
According to Vitella, the school district has been working closely with the township to advertise the change and avoid confusion on Election Day, including plans to advertise the change through lawn signs in front of the schools, signs of doors of schools, information on the district’s website and more.
“We are really doing everything that we can to work with the township to get this information out there,” Vitella said.
• The BOE presented a retirement recognition award to retired Mt. Laurel patrol officer Dave Beun. Beun served as Mt. Laurel’s juvenile and school security officer from 2008 through 2015.
During his time in that role, Beun assisted in the planning and implementation of many of the district’s school security measures, he conducted cyber-security Forums for parents and he taught dating violence to middle school-aged students.
The board said Beun investigated potential school security incidents and every school-related emergency throughout his service in our schools.
“Officer Beun’s contributions to the safety and security of Mt. Laurel’s students and staff have been invaluable and are truly appreciated,” said board president Maureen Sojka. “We wish him the very best in his retirement from the Mt. Laurel Police Department.”
• Although Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers scores were released for New Jersey as a whole, Vitella said district school and student reports are not expected until mid-November.
Vitella said the results would be baseline scores and there would be no comparison to the previously used New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge test from the year prior.
“We’re going to have be very clear with parents that they’re not really going to be able to use these scores to compare with how a student did last year,” Vitella said.
