Residents Generate Ideas for School District's Future

Residents shared their concerns with Dr. Sandra Brower at her first open forum since she took the position as the new superintendent of Lacey Township schools.

“I was interested in the vision and priorities of the new superintendent,” said Nidal Deeb, a father of two young children in the school district. Deeb said he was looking forward to discussing ideas.

“I wanted to bring the positives and negatives that I’ve seen in the few short years my children have been in school,” he said. “My wife is a former teacher. We place high value on education and we want them to have the best education possible. That’s why we moved to Lacey.”

Christine Cooper, a Lacey resident with children at Lanoka Harbor Elementary School, came to the forum to hear others opinions.

“I want to see where we come from, where we are and where we’re going,” she said. “I’m excited to see where we’re going to go. I do think the district has a lot of potential.”

Out of the thousands of school district parents who were invited to the open forum, 16 attended. The goal of the meeting was to listen, learn, share and celebrate, Brower said.

“There’s so much to celebrate in Lacey Township,” Brower said. “We’re not broken.”

From her first few months in Lacey, Brower has seen many positives and potential, she said. “With that comes also opportunity for change and growth…If we’re not improving every day, we’re declining.”

 The group discussed everything from equal opportunity for all students and parental support to guidance and future programs.

Brower asked the group of parents, “What conditions as a community do we create that make it possible for teachers, support staff, principals, parents and students to be more effective and successful?”

The overwhelming answer was accountability.

“If you put it up to everybody, that they’re going to be held more accountable—teachers, principals parents and students…everybody has a job to do whether they get paid for it or not,” one parent said. “They’re going to be accountable. How we’re going to do that, I don’t know but it starts and stops with an attitude that everybody is going to be held accountable for helping the kids and helping the township.”

While the group celebrated the district’s dedicated staff, a transportation system with staff who know the children, a new math curriculum at the elementary level, before and after care, the facilities, the parent portal and the PTO and PTA’s, they also came up with a list of ideas and concerns:

• The profile of the high school
• AP courses
• Updated course offerings
• Guidance for preparing students for college
• Parent support and programs
• Gatekeeping of classes
• Specialized programs
• Standardize schools and reduce variability between grades
• Teacher effectiveness and evaluation
• Meeting the needs of all students
• Tracking
• Fully integrated pre-school program
• One PTO

Schools can control very little, Brower said. “We do not control parent involvement, socioeconomic status or home life but we control curriculum, instruction and school life.”

“It does take so many hands to make this work,” she said. “We’re going to put all our energies into what we can control.”

The next step of action is for Brower to roll out a transition plan, she said. She will be releasing her mid-term report this month.

Brower will be holding another coffee “meet and greet” on Monday, Feb. 13 at the Colonial Diner on Lacey Road in Forked River from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.

This will be an informal meeting over coffee where all members of the community are encouraged to bring ideas and a vision for the school district.

RSVP to Arlene Petocz at 609-971-2002 or by e-mail apetocz@laceyschools.org.

Additional coffee hours will be scheduled throughout the school year.