By Lea Kahn
With some gentle, good-natured teasing, the Lawrence Township Board of Education thanked out-going board member Deborah Endo for her six years of service Monday night at her final school board meeting.
Ms. Endo, who lives on Cold Soil Road, was elected to the school board in 2005 and re-elected in 2008. She chose not to seek re-election for a third term. The term is for three years.
School board Vice President Leon Kaplan noted that Ms. Endo was the highest vote-getter of any school board candidate who had ever sought office. She worked for the school district for 23 years as a social worker, and she was “a well-known figure” in Lawrence, he said.
”It was a humbling experience to have lunch” with Ms. Endo in public, because people would approach their table to speak to her, but no one knew he was at the table, Mr. Kaplan said, gently teasing Ms. Endo.
Turning serious, Mr. Kaplan said that she was an important part of each of the board subcommittees on which she served.
She championed the needs of all students, especially the ones who had no one to represent their interests, he said.
”I thank you for your years of service to Lawrence Township,” Mr. Kaplan said.
Ms. Endo acknowledged that she was leaving the school board with mixed emotions.
She admitted that she often offered critiques more often than solutions as a school board member, but she had spent much of her life in the Lawrence Township public school district. She retired in 2004.
”My children went to school here and it will be very hard to walk away from it,” she said, but her children and grandchildren want more of her attention and that’s one of the reasons for not seeking a third term.

