Superintendent George Rafferty said the district has been preparing its technology, curriculum, busses, buildings and more for a new year.
Sept. 7 marks the opening day of the 2017–2018 school year for students in Mt. Laurel Schools.
Leading up to the new school year, Superintendent George Rafferty said this summer the district has been busy preparing its technology, curriculum, busses, buildings and everything else needed to lead to a successful start.
According to Rafferty, one the focuses for the district this school year is to leverage its digital capabilities, starting with the district’s new one-to-one initiative where all students in grades one through eight will have Google Chromebook laptops to use throughout the school day.
In the elementary schools, Rafferty said all classes will be equipped with a Chromebook cart for each student to pull from, and at Hartford School and Harrington Middle School, students will be individually assigned Chromebooks to take with them from class to class, just as they would a textbook.
Rafferty said much of the district’s adopted curriculum through the past several years involves technological enhancements where students can access digital materials, and now students will have the opportunity to access that material more readily, as opposed to the past whenever Chromebooks happened to be available.
At the end of each day of school, students will then be able leave their Chromebooks at school to recharge before being used the following day.
“There are a lot of logistical things that had to be worked out to get that ready, and those things have been taken care of and prepared Rafferty said.
Administratively, Rafferty said the district has a focus in several areas, including professional development training to study the concept of Growth Mindset.
With the Growth Mindset, Rafferty said the belief is that children’s accomplishments in school are not fixed, and with the practice and hard work students, the more success they’ll experience.
“Too often we attribute children’s success at certain levels to ‘that’s just the best that you can do because you can’t do anymore,’ but the Growth Mindset is this idea that success is tied more to hard work and effort than intellectual ability.
Rafferty said another focus for the district’s administration is cultural diversity, so the district can work to become more sensitive to the diversity of the Mt. Laurel community and the students in the district’s classrooms.
According to Rafferty, the district wants to ensure that its providing instruction and learning experiences that takes diversity into consideration whenever necessary, and staff will work on the topic through additional professional development.
Rafferty outlined another area of district focus this school year as increasing community involvement between the district and its residents.
Rafferty said the district wants to provide more ways for the community to provide their input regarding things about their schools they like and areas where they wish to see more focus, with the hopes of putting in place a three to five year plan.
“We want to find a way this school year to engage them, and that may involve having some special meetings in the community to get their input,” Rafferty said.
In regards to staff curriculum, Rafferty said all new staff has been hired and has completed orientation, a new math curriculum has been adopted for Harrington Middle School focused on critical thinking and hands-on work, state-mandated Next Generation Science Standards have been expanded for grades kindergarten through five.
Regarding grounds and transportation, Rafferty said all busses will have been reviewed and test driven before the first day of school, and the district has completed all summer maintenance projects and repairs to its buildings.
Overall, Rafferty said he hopes the district can continue to work with parents, who he said play a critical role in the operation schools.
“This school year is going to be an exciting year of new initiatives, enhanced curriculum and technology, and one of the most important areas we want to focus on with parents is building our partnership together.
