Lawrence school board starts talking about new Super
LAWRENCE » Kelly Edelstein defeated a powerful incumbent in the November 2017 Lawrence school board election and took office Wednesday as the newest face on the nine-member board.
After reviewing a comprehensive ethics policy and being entertained by student performances, the newly reorganized Board of Education Wednesday night passed a motion accepting the imminent retirement of Lawrence Township Public Schools Superintendent Crystal Edwards, who is stepping down effective May 19 to begin working out-of-state as superintendent of Lynchburg City Schools in Virginia.
Edwards has served as superintendent of Lawrence Public Schools since September 2011 and has worked as a New Jersey public educator since 1987. One of her career highlights is presiding over Lawrence Public Schools when it was named a National District of Character in 2014.
One of Edwards’ lowlights is when the Lawrence teachers union, known as the Lawrence Township Education Association or LTEA, in September 2016 publicly announced that 86 percent of its membership had registered a vote of no confidence in her leadership.
Board reorganizes
The newly reorganized Lawrence Township Board of Education on Wednesday reappointed Kevin Van Hise as board president and Pepper Evans as board vice president.
On behalf of the entire board, Van Hise publicly thanked Edwards for her service and congratulated her for landing a new job in Virginia.
“Our loss, but the excitement and opportunities, we congratulate you,” Van Hise said to Edwards. Then he welcomed Edelstein to the board, saying she will be involved in the board’s mosturgent duty of 2018: To hire a new superintendent of schools.
Van Hise did not provide a timeline for the board’s pending search for a new superintendent but said, “We are committed to a very public process.”
Edelstein, who is married to Trentonian columnist Jeff Edelstein, officially became a first-time school board member Wednesday as her smiling husband and children watched with pride from the front seats in the audience during the swearing-in ceremony at Lawrence High School.
Kelly Edelstein received 3,894 votes last November as the second-highest-votegetter, securing victory and ousting incumbent board member Dana Drake, who narrowly lost re-election by a handful of votes.
Drake first won election to the Lawrence school board on Nov. 5, 2013, when she secured a one-year unexpired term as the only candidate on the ballot for that seat. Then she won reelection as the top-votegetter in the 2014 election but then lost in stunning fashion in the 2017 election with a fourth-place finish.
Incumbent school board member Michele Bowes easily won re-election last year with 4,068 votes, and incumbent board member Jose “Max” Ramos barely won re-election last year with 3,053 votes. School board candidates needed to finish in the top three to win a seat on the Lawrence Township Board of Education.
Drake, the ousted incumbent, came in fourth place with 3,016 votes last November. One other candidate, former school board member Glenn Collins, ran unsuccessfully for Lawrence school board last year with 2,191 votes. Collins was previously elected in 2014 but resigned from the board in April 2016. The school board in May 2016 appointed Bowes to fill Collins’ vacant seat, and she has proven to be popular with the public ever since.
The three successful candidates in last November’s school board election — Bowes, Kelly Edelstein and Ramos — will each serve three-year terms that end in January 2021. Edelstein is serving her first term while Bowes was first elected on Nov. 8, 2016, to a one-year unexpired term with 7,369 votes, and Ramos previously was elected on Nov. 4, 2014, with 2,997 votes.
Action call
Superintendent Edwards at Wednesday’s board meeting talked about a youth suicide prevention event that took place Tuesday at Rider University in which George Scott of the Traumatic Loss Coalition presented.
“So many of our families came out in support,” Edwards said, noting that some 700 people attended the “Call to Action” event that was collectively organized by the superintendents of every school district in Mercer County.
“It was very, very powerful, very motivating,” she said of Scott’s presentation. She echoed Scott’s message for parents and community members to speak up and talk about the issues youth ages 10-24 face that may put them at increased risk of committing or attempting to commit suicide.
“We want to hear from our parents,” Edwards said at Wednesday’s school board meeting, “and we need everyone’s eyes wide open looking for warning signs.”