By Lea Kahn
Aiming to jump-start Lawrence High School’s new career academies, the Lawrence Township Board of Education on Monday approved the division of the high school into an upper school and a lower school. It also created a second principal’s post at the grades 9-12 school.
The school board also filled the vacancy for a principal at the Slackwood Elementary School, created by the pending retirement of Principal Patricia Wendell. The board also appointed a new principal for the Lawrence Intermediate School.
Jon Dauber, the principal at the Lawrence Intermediate School, was named as the principal of the Lawrence High School Upper School. He will earn $134,778. He has worked for the school district since August 2005, when he was hired as an assistant principal at LHS. He later transferred to LIS, which handles grades 4-6.
Dave Adam, who is the assistant principal at LIS, was promoted to the principal’s post at the school. He will earn $116,000. He was hired in August 2007 as an assistant principal at LHS, and then transferred to LIS last year.
And Jay Billy, who is the school district’s supervisor of special education and the child study teams for pre-school through grade 5, was appointed as principal of the Slackwood Elementary School. He will earn $142,945 as the principal of the grades K-3 school. He has worked for the district since January 2006.
All of the appointments take effect July 1.
Philip Meara, the superintendent of schools, said the district made administrative cuts to fund the positions and that it will not incur any additional administrative costs. Two of the 12-month administrative positions the supervisor of special education and the LIS assistant principal will be converted to 10-month positions. The position of interim supervisor of humanities will be eliminated, also resulting in cost savings, he said.
The move to divide the high school into an upper and lower school required the creation of the second principal’s slot. LHS Principal David Roman will oversee the LHS Lower School, which consists of grades 9 and 10, and its freshman and sophomore academies.
Mr. Dauber will be the principal in charge of the upper school, which handles grades 11 and 12, and the three career academies the Academy of Arts and Humanities, the Academy of Business and International Studies and the Academy of Science and Technology. The career academies are open to juniors and seniors.
While enrollment in a career academy is not mandatory, the goal of the academies is to expose students to potential careers while they are also taking college-preparatory courses. A student must remain in a career academy for one year, but may switch from one academy to another for the next school year.
Mr. Meara said the career academies will open in September, and the administrative reconfiguration would help to provide the extra attention and the push that they need to be successful. It will give parents, students and staff more access to administrators so their needs and concerns can be met, he said.
The career academies also require corporate and university ties, and there is a need for administrators to have enough flexibility to go out into the community, Mr. Meara said. High school seniors in the academies will have opportunities for to participate in college courses, internships, community service and research projects.
Dividing LHS into an upper school and a lower school is patterned after an identical division of Lawrence Intermediate School into a lower school for grade 4 and an upper school for grades 5 and 6, the superintendent said.
”This is a concept that works, and we wanted to bring it to the high school,” he said. “This plan emulates and builds upon the success experienced at LIS, when the district structured the building as a school within a school. It facilitates greater personalization and smaller learning communities.”
The reconfiguration will be reviewed each year by the school board as to whether or not it wants to continue the upper school and lower school concept at Lawrence High School, Mr. Meara said.

