By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
LAWRENCE — When the Lawrence Township public school district’s teachers entered their classrooms today to start the 2010-11 school year, their work was already cut out for them.
They will be faced with four issues this year, Philip Meara, the superintendent of schools, told the teachers that had gathered in the Lawrence High School auditorium Wednesday morning.
Mr. Meara reeled off the list — academic excellence and equity, future technology, fiscal responsibility and community outreach — as the teachers listened intently.
Academic excellence is the top goal, and it’s going to be challenging, Mr. Meara said. About 100 new students have enrolled in the Lawrence Township public school district in the last few weeks, and many of their families are sharing living quarters with other family members and friends for economic reasons.
”We have to find a way to address (their needs),” Mr. Meara said. School district officials are worried about test scores, but the students and their families are more concerned with meeting their basic needs, he said.
Nevertheless, teachers have to encourage the students to become excited about learning, he said. Creativity also is important and in fact, it is the number one quality sought in leaders by corporations. Problem-solving skills are important, he said.
Future technology is another issue, Mr. Meara said. The district is launching its TALENT21 program, in which the district received a grant to provide each 6th-grader with a Dell notebook computer.
Technology is something that everyone must deal with, he said. Given students’ interest in playing games on the computer and interest in social networking as a means of communicating with each other, there is a need for students to become critical thinkers and not rote learners, he said.
Fiscal responsibility is yet another issue, Mr. Meara said. For the first time since 1976, voters rejected the majority of New Jersey school district budgets in April. Lawrence voters, however, approved the district’s budget.
The rejection of those budgets means that 85 percent of New Jersey public school students will see fewer teachers, which translates into larger class sizes because of budget cuts and personnel layoffs, Mr. Meara said.
The Lawrence school district was aware that it would face financial issues several years ago, as the Robbinsville public school district began to send fewer high school students as it built its own high school, he said.
Fewer Robbinsville students meant a loss of tuition revenue, but Thomas Eldridge, the district’s business administrator, had already begun to take steps to offset the loss, Mr. Meara said. For example, the district has generated about $500,000 in revenue through its solar energy panel initiative, in which it generates electricity that it sells to the utility company.
Community outreach is the last issue, he said. One example is the Relay for Life, which was a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Participants raised about $75,000 in the course of a few hours of walking around the LHS track.
”In Lawrence, we can accomplish great things,” Mr. Meara said. “You are the staff that Lawrence has been waiting for. We have a lot of work to do.”

