Super gets ‘good news’ amid union’s ‘no confidence’
LAWRENCE >> The Lawrence Township Education Association has no confidence in Superintendent Dr. Crystal M. Edwards, but the schools chief publicly said district parents have recently showered her with positive feedback.
At the Sept. 14 Lawrence Township Board of Education meeting,Edwardsannounced the “good news” that she had attended the Back to School Night events at Lawrenceville and Eldridge Park elementaryschools,askedparentsfor their thoughts, concerns or interests, and received pleasant responses in return.
“Most of them handed me the card back saying, ‘You know, you are doing a great job. This is a wonderful district. I love my school. We love the programs here.’ And they didn’t feel the need to fill out the card,” Edwards said in public comments at the school board meeting. “Some people put that information on the card. We did get some not as many responses because most people thought, ‘Well, I don’t have anything to complain about, and I am really happy.’”
The 573-member LTEA teachersuniononSept.1publicly announced that 86 percent of its membership had registered a vote of no confidence in the leadership of Edwards, who has been superintendent since September 2011 and is under contract to serve till at least June 30, 2020.
“We are asking for changes; we are not asking for firings,” LTEA President Michele D’Angelo told The Trentonian on Sept. 1. She said the vote of no confidence occurred earlier this year in the spring.
The LTEA drafted a letter dated May 26, 2016, explaining its vote of no confidence. The highly critical letter accuses Edwards of having a lack of concern that allegedly “compromised curriculum standards that affect our students’ ability to succeed” and further alleges that “Edwards’ general unwillingness to work cooperatively with not just the LTEA, but with the staff creates a climate of hostility, fear, and — in many instances — creates the perception that she is only interested in achieving the goals set forth in her personal contract.”
“Under Dr. Edwards, district facilities are falling into disrepair,” the LTEA letter alleges. “Older district school buildings do not provide adequate educational amenities. In addition to cramped classrooms and a lack of communal space for educators and students, there are perennial issues with insects, mold, mildew, broken air conditioners, leaking roofs, leaky plumbing, leaking windows, leaking heaters, damaged floors, run down offices and an overall lack of capital improvements. Repairs are frequently quick fixes that require attention within a few months.”
Thomas Eldridge, who serves as board secretary and business administrator of the Lawrence Township Public Schools District, at last week’s board meeting said the district has staff trained on identifying asbestos fiber releases, mold, and bloodborne pathogens, including vomit or any other bodily fluid.
“When we see the problems, we attack them,” Eldridge said. “That level of transparency has, I can’t say that it really has served us well, to tell you the truth, because people still accuse us of all sorts of things. But at least I know we can sleep at night. And whatever else anyone else says, that is not my concern. We’ve held our head up high, and we just keep going high.”
Eldridge said one of the district’s schools had a mold issue in the auditorium that was successfully remediated over the summer before teachers or students reported back to school for the 2016-17 schoolyear.
Lawrence school board President Kevin Van Hise in a Sept. 1 email said the Board of Education has “full and complete confidence in and support Dr. Edwards as the leader of the district” and said the school board has authorized “an in-depth investigation” of the LTEA’s letter “to determine if there is merit to any of the claims asserted.”
The LTEA publicly disclosing its vote of no confidence was the proverbial 800-pound gorilla in the room at last week’s Lawrence school board meeting, but none of the school board members or district officials directly acknowledged the controversy in public, according to the district’s audio recording of the Sept. 14 board meeting.
The Lawrence Township Board of Education’s Negotiations Committee will soon meet with LTEA negotiators in the near future, according to comments Van Hise made at the board meeting. Those negotiations would likely revolve around the need for a future contract for LTEA members, whose current contract expires June 30, 2017.
“We should have the documents that LTEA needs by Sept. 30,” Edwards said at the board meeting.
In other comments, Edwards said all school superintendents in Mercer County oppose the Gov. Chris Christie administration’s abrupt decision Aug. 31 to make student performance on the PARCC standardized exam account for 30 percent of a teacher’s evaluation. PARCC previously accounted for 10 percent of a teacher’s evaluation.
“I know it is a done deal,” Edwards said of the Christie administration’s decision, “but that doesn’t mean I still can’t go kicking and screaming, so I just wanted you guys to know that we are kicking and screaming as a county totally not in favor of this.”
Edwards and her school administration at last week’s board meeting also revealed the district has realized an annual decrease in the number of reported incidents involving harassment, intimidation and bullying, also known as HIB incidents. The superintendent said Lawrence Public Schools is “honest” in its HIB reporting and talked about how she had defended the district at a recent conference in which she had stood up and told the conference hall that “you want your kids to go to Lawrence” because “in Lawrence our teachers care about our kids.”
The Lawrence Township Public Schools District in the 2013-14 schoolyear reported 68 incidents of harassment, bullying or intimidation. The number of reported HIB incidents declined to 53 in the 2014-15 schoolyear and further declined to 34 HIB incidents in the 2015-16 schoolyear, according to the district’s HIB Summary Report.
Lawrence Public Schools in the 2013-14 schoolyear reported 37 incidents of violence. The district reported 27 incidents of violence in the 2014-15 schoolyear and reported 31 incidents of violence in the 2015-16 schoolyear, according to the district’s Electronic Violence and Vandalism Reporting System (EVVRS) data.
Lawrence Public Schools in the 2013-14 academic year reported 20 incidents of substance abuse districtwide. The district reported 14 incidents of substance abuse in the 2014-15 schoolyear and reported four incidents of substance abuse in the 201516 schoolyear, EVVRS data show. About 4,000 students are enrolled in the district.
At the Sept. 14 school board meeting, a parent named Glenn Collins complained that a large number of Lawrence Intermediate School students never got to take a physical fitness test to compete for the Presidential Youth Fitness Award last schoolyear. He estimated that 300 students did not take the fitness test due to “a mistake made at the school by a physical education teacher” and demanded the district to personally apologize to all of those affected students.
Edwards said the affected children were “afforded the opportunity” to take the full test in pursuit of the Presidential Youth Fitness Award. Van Hise, the school board president, suggested the matter was an administrative issue and “not a board issue.”
After pleading his case for several minutes, Collins expressed dissatisfaction with the district officials and said, “You can’t send a simple email out to fourth, fifth or sixth graders? It’s not like you are dealing with the union or anyone. That’s sad. It really is.”