The Mt. Laurel Board of Education will be holding an educational summit for residents, township officials and others affiliated with the school district at Hartford School on May 15 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The goal of the summit is to bring people from various backgrounds together to share ideas about the state of public education in the township.
Director of communications Marie Reynolds said it is the first summit the district is holding since 2006. The summit is something the board of education does to bring the community together and get their opinion on the ever-changing landscape of education in New Jersey and Mt. Laurel.
“There’s so many changes taking place in the schools, and we want them to be aware of the changes,” Reynolds said.
A lot of the changes since the district’s last summit revolve around technology and the recently instated Common Core curriculum.
To bring a hands-on perspective to participants, the district is hoping to provide 100 Google Chromebooks for the event. The computers were purchased last year to allow students to take the PARCC test, which starts statewide next year.
Reynolds added they are trying to set it up so participants can interact with the PARCC test at the event.
While technology and curriculum are likely to be hot topics at the event, participants are able to talk about any aspect of the school district they may like.
Board vice president Maureen Sojka said they are preparing a number of questions and dialogue points to drive the conversation.
During the last summit in 2006, Reynolds said school security was something much of the community was concerned about. Following the summit, the district examined the suggestions made and instituted many of the protocols still in place today.
“A lot of the security suggestions that were made had been implemented,” Reynolds said. “It’s been really successful.”
Reynolds said the last summit also alerted the board and school administrators to other concerns community members had.
The district’s goal is to have a large variety of demographics in its group of 100.
To do this, invitations have been sent to township officials, civic organizations, churches and other groups.
These community members do not need to have children in the district to participate.
“We want some senior citizens to be there, young kids without families. We sent to daycares where some of the children will be coming into our district,” Reynolds said.
Registration for the summit is open to the public. However, the board is limiting participation to just 100 people. To register online or for more information, log on to www.mtlaurelschools.org.
