scores remains priority
for staff in Lakewood
Improvement in test
scores remains priority
for staff in Lakewood
BY JOYCE BLAY
Staff Writer
Lakewood’s public schools will welcome students back to class with open arms but few changes, according to Superintendent of Schools Ernest Cannava.
"There wasn’t a lot we could do" after our budget was cut, Cannava said.
The Board of Education proposed a $95 million budget for the 2004-05 school year, which was resoundingly rejected by voters in the April election.
The Township Committee subsequently reduced the spending plan to about $92 million.
PHOTOS BY MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Teachers at the Ella G. Clarke School in Lakewood were back in the building on Monday to prepare for a new school year. Second-grade teacher Catherine MacMillan (l) was surrounded by boxes, while first-grade teacher Erica Wulfekotte was getting classroom materials ready for her pupils.
District administrators have said in the past that after costs for teachers’ and administrators’ salaries, transportation, equipment and facilities are accounted for there is not much left for "extras."
Students will return to school on Sept. 7.
Cannava said enrollment at Lakewood’s four elementary schools (K-6) will be about 3,200 students; middle school enrollment (7-8) will be about 755 students; and high school enrollment (9-12) will be about 1,300 students. He estimated that a total of 5,255 students would be enrolled in Lakewood’s public schools when classes start.
Information provided by board secretary Edwin Luick earlier this year indicated that Lakewood’s September 2003 enrollment stood at 5,411 students. The previous year, 2002-03, 5,299 students began public school in Lakewood. In 2001-02, 5,145 students started class.
John Flavin, who will teach a sixth grade class at the Ella G. Clarke School, Lakewood, gets a bulletin board ready for the first day of school. Students will return from their summer vacation Sept. 7.
Vaccaro Brothers, a local firm, donated new carpeting that was installed at the Oak Street Elementary School and its auxiliary gym. Bathroom stall partitions were replaced in all schools at a cost of $64,000. Interior painting was done at Spruce Street and the middle school cafeteria.
Cannava said the district had hired a full-time painter to perform such projects. He said all maintenance and custodial projects were contracted out to Sodexho, a division of Marriott Corp., which also provides the district’s food service.
Despite intensive lobbying at board meetings this past spring by board Vice President Norman Bellinger and board member Chet Galdo, no new boilers will be installed at the middle school. Instead, boilers there will be converted from oil to gas. Cannava said all other schools are now on gas.
In the past, said Cannava, the middle school would run out of fuel to heat the school, leaving it temporarily unheated for a brief period of time. That will no longer happen once the state awards the grant money it has already approved for the project. The cost of the conversion project is $102,000, said Cannava.
He said the Linden Street administrative building will also be converted to gas along with the middle school upon receipt of the funding.
Cannava said there would be no new programs this school year.
"We don’t have the money," he said. "Our major objective is to raise students’ test scores."
In May, the board voted to eliminate the position of director of testing, which had been filled by Joann Benedetto, a former math teacher.
In August, district administrators announced that the Clifton Avenue Elementary School had been designated a school in need of improvement under the criteria established by the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
The designation is given to schools whose students, over a period of time, do not score high enough on standardized tests to meet benchmarks set by the federal government. A total of 15 students elected to transfer from Clifton Avenue to Spruce Street under guidelines established by NCLB.
"It will be a challenge without that position (director of testing), but we will be able to improve the test scores at Clifton Avenue with the plan we have submitted to the state," said Cannava.