An eighth grade student at Harrington Middle School has a chance to compete with the best in the state at a science fair after taking first place in a county event.
Samantha Sorid was presented an award at last night’s Mt. Laurel Board of Education work session for winning first place in the Burlington County Science Fair in December. Sorid will compete in the Coriell Science Fair later this year against other county winners in the state.
Sorid’s project involved money and morality. As a sociology experiment, she would leave money out on a table and kept a tally of whether people would pocket the money or put it in a container for charity.
Sorid was accompanied by her teacher Maureen Barrett. Barrett also received an award for assisting Sorid in her project. She said it was an honor to have Sorid in her class for the first time this year. Sorid was unable to be in Barrett’s class previously because of scheduling issues.
“Earlier this year she came knocking on my door and she told me, ‘I want to do a science fair,’” Barrett said.
An additional award was presented to Larchmont Media Specialist Jean Stock. Stock was one of 56 people to be selected in its class of Emerging Leaders. The class is a program sponsored by the American Library Association and consists of a number of classes designed to help library personnel improve their organization and leadership skills while also giving them the opportunity to network with their other peers.
In Other News:
• The Mt. Laurel School District is moving forward with its exterior lighting project at its buildings. Assistant Superintendent for Business Robert Wachter said the New Jersey Clean Energy rebate program is providing funds to help facilitate the upgrade. Rebates have been accepted for Parkway School and Hillside School. Wachter said work will begin on the projects very soon.
• The school district will soon be making changes to its food service technology as Wachter said the schools are looking to change the cafeteria’s point of sale software from LunchBox to LunchTime. Wachter said Nutri-Serve recommended moving forward with the change. LunchBox is a five year-old program and has caused headaches recently.
“LunchBox has not kept up with the times,” he said.
Included in the changes will be upgrades to some of the cafeteria equipment. The changes are necessary to run the new software.
“We also have to upgrade our terminals and keypads,” Wachter said.
The new software will not have any affect on the budget.
• With the schools reaching roughly the halfway point of the year, Superintendent Antoinette Rath and Wachter said the school district is on target with their budget numbers for the year.
The district has also began planning for their 2014–15 budget. Wachter said a timeline hasn’t been established for the budget yet.
• Rath offered praise for the school district’s bus drivers following Jan. 10, when freezing rain made the roads extremely icy in the middle of the buses’ morning runs.
Rath explained the buses could not stop once they got out on the road. When the buses began their morning, the roads were clear.
Despite the icy roads, all of the buses arrived safely. Rath said drivers were told to pull over on the road if conditions were too hazardous, leading to many buses being later. However, safety was the first priority.
“There were a few snags for the buses getting in,” she said.
• The next Mt. Laurel Board of Education meeting is on Tuesday, Jan. 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hattie Britt Administration Building.
