Woolley named director of strategic planningWhat does the future hold for Lawrence Township Schools?
By: Lea Kahn
It will be up to Lawrence Middle School Principal Walter C. Woolley to help find the answer to that question in his new job as the school district’s director of strategic planning. The job was created by the Lawrence Township Board of Education last month.
"The times have made strategic planning an important issue," said Dr. Woolley, who will leave his current post as principal to begin his new job effective July 1.
Dr. Woolley will be paid $115,000 in his new job. He earns $113,000 in his present position as middle school principal.
"The school is a rapidly changing institution," said Dr. Woolley. "Look at school five years ago and look at it today. It is a vastly different place. Given the pace of society, school will be far more different five years from now."
The goal of the strategic planning position is to create an organized, long-term plan to meet students’ needs, he said. It is organizing resources over the long term to make the most efficient use of those resources, as well as finding money to support classroom instruction, he said.
The job of director of strategic planning is made up of three elements strategic planning, developing funding sources and working with school principals, Dr. Woolley said. The job’s main responsibility is to create an organized, methodical strategy for addressing the many challenges facing the school district in the next five years, he said.
There are long-term facilities issues, such as overcrowding, that have been addressed in piecemeal fashion over the years, Dr. Woolley said. It may be possible to handle the overcrowding issue in another way other than by building a new school, for example, he said.
"If we do build a new school, what will it look like?" he said. "What kind of educational culture will we create, and how will it impact on the students? We have certain beliefs about how education takes place, who we will educate, when and where education takes place. We operate during certain hours and days. Will it change?
"What do we value educationally, and how can we make it happen? For example, is it important for us to provide accelerated (learning) opportunities for young students? If so, how does the structure of the school that we may build allow for it."
Strategic planning also includes long-term financial planning for the school district, Dr. Woolley said. This means looking at the financial needs of the district over many years not just year to year. For example, how can the school district maintain its buildings unless it has a long term view of what is needed and when it will be needed, he said.
The Lawrence Middle School is 50 years old, Dr. Woolley said. He will be responsible for determining what school district officials can expect of the components that make up the building, such as the roof and the heating system. He will also need to determine when they need to be replaced. There needs to be a plan to determine how the district will manage the upkeep over time so that taxpayers won’t be asked to pay for all the repairs at once, he said.
Dr. Woolley also must find new funding sources for the school district. This means reaching out to corporations and government for grants and other financial assistance something that the school district has been doing successfully.
Recently, computer giant Cisco Systems joined forces with the Lawrence Township Education Foundation to create the Lawrence Cisco Networking Academy. The nonprofit LTEF spent $25,000 to buy the equipment needed for the academy.
The students enrolled in the Cisco academy are learning how to design, manage and troubleshoot computer networks. When they graduate, they will become Cisco Certified Networking Associates. They will be able to find high-paying jobs after high school, or they can continue to study computer technology in college.
The third aspect of Dr. Woolley’s new job is to work with the principals of the seven schools the four elementary schools, the intermediate school, the middle school and the high school to find ways to make an impact on instruction.
Dr. Woolley said he is aware of the obstacles facing the principals. There are many routine office jobs that someone must perform, and it is most often the principal who does them. This means the principal cannot spend enough time in the classroom, observing the teachers and coaching them, he said.
A support system is needed that will enable the principals to leave the office and get into the classroom, Dr. Woolley said. The school secretaries can be trained to become operations assistants, for example. They can take on some of the responsibilities handled by the principal, such as writing press releases or newsletters, he said.
"Strategic planning is all about one single issue supporting instruction in the classroom. It means making the best use of the resources over the long term to help teachers, parents and the community focus on what is important supporting instruction in the classroom," Dr. Woolley said.