mt. laurel - 0504

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www.mtlaurelsun.com MAY 4–10, 2016 FREE

Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Classified . . . . . . . . . . . 20–23Editorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Police Report . . . . . . . . . . . 13

INSIDE THIS ISSUELRHSD BOE

Mt. Laurel residents will seetax increase. PAGE 3

SEAN LAJOIE/The Sun

Tommy Gardiner and Jake Topolski look to turn a double play. Lenape High School baseball toppedCherry Hill High School East last week by a score of 5-1. Ben Rodier picked up his third win of theseason as the Indians improved their record to 6-2. For more photos, please see page 17.

Indians improve record to 6-2

By ZANE CLARKThe Sun

The Mt. Laurel Board of Edu-cation adopted the district’s 2016-2017 school year budget at itsApril 26 meeting.

Mt. Laurel residents withhomes assessed at the averagevalue of $237,600 will see a $54.65increase for their local K-8 schooltaxes next year.

The rise in rates will bring thetotal local K-8 school taxes to$2,525.69 for the average assessedhome.

In addition to all the district’sday-to-day operations included inthe budget, SuperintendentGeorge Rafferty also highlighted

several other noteworthy items.One upgrade in the budget is anupdate to the district’s Math In-vestigations program for gradestwo to five. Although the programhas not been updated in severalyears, its third generation was re-cently released and with that thedistrict decided it was time to up-

please see CAPITAL, page 18

By MIKE MONOSTRAThe Sun

Lenape High School senior RayBackus has established himself as one of the best track and fieldthrowers in Burlington County.

Last year,he finished10th in the dis-cus in theSouth JerseyGroup IV sec-tional meetand has hiseyes set on ad-vancing to the

Group IV statechampionshipmeet this sea-son.

As a result, Backus got interestfrom a number of colleges thatwant him to join their team.

However, Backus won’t begoing to college next year.

please see BACKUS, page 14

Mt. LaurelBOE adopts

budget Average homeowner will see $54.65 increase

in K-8 school taxes

Senioryear big

for BackusThrower looks to advance to state championships,challenge Lenape recordin discus before joining the U.S. Marine Corps

BACKUS

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2 THE MT. LAUREL SUN — MAY 4–10, 2016

The following Lenape HighSchool boys’ tennis score wassubmitted by varsity head coachTony Guerrera.

Cherry Hill East defeatedLenape, 5-0, on April 27.

Singles:First singles: Rahul Goculdas,

Cherry Hill East, defeated JackLavin 6-4 6-3

Second singles: Adam Yu,Cherry Hill East, defeated Marc

Ignarri 6-0 6-0Third singles: Elan Boyarsky,

Cherry Hill East, defeated JimmyLi 6-4 6-3

Doubles:First doubles: Jesse Dubrow

and Kevin Hu, Cherry Hill East,defeated Kavi Munjal and JeremyShpigel 6-4 6-4

Second doubles: Aaron Silver-berg and Drew Meklinsky, CherryHill East, defeated Brett Chowand Allen Sha 6-3 6-3

The following Lenape HighSchool softball score was submit-ted by varsity head coach EricKrastek.

Lenape defeated Cherry HillEast, 5-2, on April 27.

Devon Horner homered for theIndians in the win. Courtney Car-roll and Jess Chen both had dou-bles. Bria Scheets pitched a com-plete game for Lenape, earningthe win.

tennis score

softball score

Email us at [email protected]

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MAY 4–10, 2016 –THE MT. LAUREL SUN 3

Jacqueline "Jacki" SmoyerThe Smart Move

Sales Associate | ABR, MRPcell: (856) 296-7226

office: (856) 235-1950202 W. Main St, Moorestown, NJ 08057email: [email protected]

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By SEAN LAJOIEThe Sun

After having its temporarybudget approved by the state De-partment of Education, theLenape Regional High School Dis-trict Board of Education sharedits final edition at last week’s pub-

lic hearing.Mt. Laurel Township residents

will see a small increase in theirregional school tax bill for the2016-17 year.

The tax levy will increase by.15 cents, resulting in an increasein regional school taxes of $4.03on a home assessed at the town-ship average of $237,600.

The total budget is $156.6 mil-lion, an increase of $2.6 millionfrom last year. Most of the budgetis funded with taxpayer money,

with $116.1 million expected tocome from taxpayers in the dis-trict's eight sending municipali-ties.

Board member David Stow em-

phasized the lack of state aidcoming in to help take the burdenoff the taxpayers.

“Our state aid should not belower than it was in 2009,” hesaid.

Over the past 20 years, statesupport of the LRHSD has de-creased from nearly 40 percent of

the budget in 1994-95 to just 19.7percent of the 2016-2017 budget.

“We’re grateful for the small in-crease in state funding for ourdistrict, but as expenses increase,it remains a challenge to meet theeducational needs of all of ourstudents within a manageablebudget,” Superintendent CarolBirnbohm said.

State aid increased by $67,820this year, though this numberwon't cover even half of the costthe district will be spending to

bring in the two new special edu-cation staff positions.

The new special education

Regional school

taxes to increase Average homeowner will see $4.03 increase

please see STATE, page 16

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4 — MAY 4–10, 2016

Gary F. Woodend, MBA, JD5-C N. Main Street• Medford, NJ 08055

609-654-5489 or v isitwww.WoodendLaw.com

The following Lenape HighSchool golf score was submittedby varsity head coach Chris Foley.

Lenape defeated WashingtonTownship, 157-165, on April 27.

Lenape: Doug Ergood, 37;Adam Hoversen, 39; JoeNuneviller, 40; Leo Christou, 41.

Starting Friday, May 6, the Mt.Laurel Historical Society willhold its annual Mother's DayPlant Sale at Farmers Hall, locat-ed at the intersection of Moorestown-Mt. Laurel Road andHainesport-Mt. Laurel Road inMt. Laurel.

Hanging baskets, bedding

plants, geraniums and herbs willbe available for sale on Friday,May 6 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. andSaturday May 7 from 10 a.m. to 5p.m.

For further information, call(856) 235-2334.

golf

score

Historical

Society plantsale is May 6-7

Please recyclethis newspaper.

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108 Kings Highway East

Haddonfield, NJ 08033

856-427-0933

The Sun is published weekly by ElauwitMedia LLC, 108 Kings Highway East, 3rdFloor, Haddonfield, NJ 08033. It is mailed weekly to select addresses in the 08054 ZIPcode. If you are not on the mailing list, six-month subscriptions are available for$39.99.

PDFs of the publication are online, free of charge. For information, please call 856-427-0933.

To submit a news release, please [email protected].

For advertising information, call 856-427-0933 or email [email protected].

The Sun welcomes suggestions and com-ments from readers – including any infor-mation about errors that may call for a cor-rection to be printed.

SPEAK UPThe Sun welcomes letters from readers.Brief and to the point is best, so we look forletters that are 300 words or fewer. Include your name, address and phone number. Wedo not print anonymous letters. Send lettersto [email protected], via fax at 856-427-0934, or via the mail. You can dropthem off at our office, too.

The Mt. Laurel Sun reserves the right to

reprint your letter in any medium – includ-ing electronically.

Dan McDonough Jr.chairman of elauwit media

manaGinG editor Kristen Dowd

senior associate editor Mike Monostra

mt. laurel editor Zane Clark

art director Stephanie Lippincott

advertisinG director Arlene Reyes

elauwit media Group

publisher emeritus Steve Miller

editor emeritus Alan Bauer

Tim Ronaldsonexecutive editor

Joe Eiselepublisher

Nearly 40 Rowan College at BurlingtonCounty student artists will showcase theirtalent and creativity in art and design atthe new exhibition at the college’s StudentArt Gallery in downtown Mt. Holly.

More than 100 works of art, includingphotography, drawing, painting, sculpture,ceramics, mixed media, jewelry and graph-ic design, will be featured during RCBC’s

17th Annual Student Art & Design Exhibi-tion.

The exhibition will be displayed at theStudent Art Gallery, 1 High St., Mt. Holly,through Saturday, June 11 during normalgallery hours: Wednesdays, Fridays, andthe second Saturday of the month fromnoon to 3 p.m., and Thursdays from 3 to 7p.m.

The 17th Annual Student Art & DesignExhibition was curated by Jessica Kane,

campus curator.RCBC’s Student Art Gallery is a part of

RCBC’s overall transformation plan to cre-ate a more modernized campus experi-ence.

The plan calls for the college to create animpressive arts presence in Mt. Holly bymoving the gallery to the front of the col-lege’s Mt. Holly Center to improve foot traf-fic and the streetscape, and moving the finearts studio, graphic design and fashion de-

sign programs to Mt. Holly to join the ex-isting culinary arts program.

RCBC student artists showcase work at gallery


Way back in 2010, Gov.

Christie won a political bat-

tle, enacting a 2 percent cap

on municipal tax levies.

The law required towns to limit

their municipal budget increases to a

maximum of 2 percent, down from 4

percent, lest they be subject to publicvote.

As is the norm, legislators argued

over whether the law would have any

real effect on property taxes, or

whether it was just another way of an-

gling and passing blame onto predeces-

sors.

State data released recently would

say that Christie’s property tax reform

is indeed working.

While the average residential prop-

erty tax bill rose to a record high of

$8,353 last year, it increased “only” 1.7

percent, when you factor out the two

troubling property value communities

of Atlantic City and Paterson.

The state’s Community Affairs De-

partment said the average homeownerpaid $468 more in property taxes last

year.

We’re not ready to jump headfirst

into the Kool-Aid just yet, but we also

believe that at least a small part of the

leveling off in tax increases is because

of the property tax cap.

Residents of the Garden State still

pay the highest average real-estate

levies.

Christie’s property-tax reform was

never going to fix that problem in this

short of a time frame, but it’s a good

start that’s showing progress already.

What the 2 percent cap does is keep

local governments in check, with a rea-

sonable limit on increases. It forces

local councils, committees, commis-

sions and school boards to take a sec-

ond look at expenses and cut the excess

wherever possible. It forces these enti-

ties to investigate shared services and

share resources.

In a word, it forces accountability.

No council, committee, commissionor school board wants the fate of its

budget to rest in the hands of voters.

School boards disliked the practice

when it was a standard, and they

would all dislike it if it were to go to a

vote again.

Is Christie’s 2 percent cap the be-all,

end-all of property tax reform in New

Jersey? Probably not. But it is a step in

the right direction.

Now, it’s up to our state govern-

ment – the one we have now and the

next administration that will take of-

fice when Christie’s terms ends in

2018 – to take the next step and fix our

state’s broken property tax system

once and for all.

in our opinion

Is Christie’s tax cap working?The data would say yes, at least on the surface; now it’s time for a next step

Your thoughts

Is Gov. Christie’s property tax reformworking? Or is it all just political smoke-and-mirrors? Let your voice be heardthrough a letter to the editor.

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MAKE M THER'S DAY SPARKLE

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WE NES Y MAY 4Info Table: US Family Health Plan:

Adult. 10 a.m. at the Mt. LaurelLibrary. Health Benefits Consult-

ant Josephine Grey will be in thelobby to answer questions aboutUS Family Health Plan for quali-fied military personnel.

Crochet Anyone?: Adult. 1 p.m. atthe Mt. Laurel Library. Learn tocrochet or crochet with newfriends. Join craft enthusiasts forcrocheting and conversation.Novices and experts welcome.Instruction available if needed.No registration necessary. Pleasebring personal knitting materials.

May The Fourth Be With You! :

Grades seven to 12. 5:30 p.m. atthe Mt. Laurel Library. CelebrateStar Wars Day at the library.Enjoy Star Wars themed snackswhile watching “The Empire

Strikes Back,” arguably the bestmovie of the original trilogy, andmaking Star Wars bookmarks.

Intro to Meditation: Young adult –Adult. 7 p.m. at Mt. Laurel Library.

Join an experienced meditationinstructor and achieve relaxationof mind and body. Wear comfort-able clothes, try not to eat a bigmeal before class and bring a mator towel. Those who prefer not tosit on the floor, may sit on a chair.No registration needed.

Zoning Board meeting: 7 p.m. in thecourtroom at 100 Mt. LaurelRoad, Municipal Building, 100 Mt.Laurel Road. Visit www.mount-laurel.com for more informationand to confirm meeting time.

Toastmasters Unity of Mt. Laurelmeeting: 7 to 8:30 p.m. on first,third and fifth Wednesdays at Mt.Laurel Community Center, 100Mt. Laurel Road. For anyone

interested in developing commu-nity and leadership skills. Formore information, contactShanese Ann Bello [email protected] or (609)346-2314.

Rotary Club of Mt. Laurel meeting:Noon at Laurel Creek CountryClub, 655 Old Centerton Road.For more information, visitwww.mountlaurelrotary.org orcall (856) 234-7663.

Storytime: 11 a.m. every Wednesdayat Kids Play Lounge in Mt. Laurel.Come hear a new story everyweek and then stay and play therest of the day! Call (856) 273-9500 or visit www.kidsplay-lounge.com for more information.

THURS Y MAY 5Beautiful Butterflies: Grades K to

4. 7 p.m. at the Mt. Laurel Library.

Participants will explore this fas-cinating and beautiful group ofinsects with live specimens andhands-on activities. Presented bythe Rancocas Nature Center.

Masonville-Rancocas UMC Family-Friendly Roller Skating: 6 to 8p.m. at the International Sportscenter, 1 Hovtech Blvd. Bringneighbors and friends and jointhe church for a great night offamily-friendly fun. Admissionsare $5 per person, with skaterental about $5. Hosted byMasonville-Rancocas UnitedMethodist Church. Any questions,please call the church office at(856) 234-0941.

S TUR Y MAY 7Lego League: Grades K-four. 10:30

a.m. at the Mt. Laurel Library.Registration required. Join us forthis month's meeting of thelibrary’s Lego League. Eachmonth the library gathers togeth-er and build around a specifictheme. This group is not spon-sored by the Lego Group.

SUN Y MAY 8

New Covenant PresbyterianChurch: Sunday worship 11 a.m. tonoon. Adult Bible study 9:30 to10:30 a.m. Coffee and fellowshipafter the church service eachthird Sunday. Church is at 240Creek Road, Rancocas Woods,Mount Laurel.

MON Y MAY 9Baby and Toddler Story time: Up to

age 3. 10:30 a.m. at the Mt. Laurel

Library. Come to this event forfun for the little ones. Join thelibrary for stories, songs, finger-plays and musical instrumentsfor all. Best suited for babies andtoddlers up to 3 years old. Sib-

lings are welcome. No registra-tion.

Crochet Anyone?: Adult. 7 p.m. atthe Mt. Laurel Library. Learn tocrochet or crochet with newfriends. Join craft enthusiasts forcrocheting and conversation.Novices and experts welcome.Instruction available if needed.No registration necessary. Pleasebring personal knitting materials.

Friends of the Mt. Laurel Librarymeeting: 7 p.m. on the second

Monday of the month at thelibrary. For more information, vis-it www.mtlaurel.lib.nj.us or call(856) 234-7319.

TUES Y MAY 10Preschool story time: Ages 3

through 6. 10:30 a.m. and 1:30p.m. at the Mt. Laurel Library.Join the library for a fun-filledsession of stories, songs, fingerplays, and an art activity. Bestsuited for ages 3-6 years. Siblings

are welcome. No registration.Mt. Laurel Historical Society meet-

ing: 7:30 p.m. at Farmers Hall,intersection of Hainesport Mt. Lau-rel Road and Moorestown Mt. Lau-rel Road. For more information, callPresident Fran Daily at (856) 235-2334.

Mt. Laurel I BNI Chapter meeting:7:30 to 9 a.m. at Marco’s Restau-rant at Indian Spring C.C., 115 S.Elmwood Drive.

CALENDARPAGE 8 MAY 4–10, 2016

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The YMCA of Burlington and

Camden Counties will be hostingan upcoming blood drive.

The need for blood is constant.According to the American RedCross, someone in the U.S. needsblood every two seconds. Howev-er, if every current donor donatedone more time a year, there wouldnot be a blood shortage.

While giving blood is a simplething to do, it can make a huge

difference in the lives of others.

One donation can potentially savethree lives. Help the Y give the ul-timate gift of blood to the Ameri-can Red Cross on Sunday, May8, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 59 Cen-terton Road, Mt. Laurel. A validID is required to donate.

For more information or to reg-ister, please contact the Mt. Lau-rel YMCA Welcome Center at(856) 231-9622, ext. 212.

Taylor Aguiar of Mt. Laurel re-cently received the Honors Col-lege Citation in a ceremony at theMemorial Chapel on the Universi-ty of Maryland’s College Parkcampus.

The citation signifies the suc-cessful completion of honorscourse work that includes honorsseminars, special honors ver-sions of introductory courses anda first year colloquium.

YMCA seeks donorsfor blood drive May 8

on campus


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Mt. Laurel Cheerleading Asso-ciation is holding open practiceson May 9, 12, 17 at Larchmont Ele-mentary School.

Practices are open to thosewho will be ages 3 to 14 as of Aug.31.

Practices for those in gradesPre-K to second are from 6:30 to7:30 p.m.

Practices for those in gradesthree and up are from 6:30 to 8p.m.

Open practices are a great timeto come see what the Mt. LaurelCheerleading Association is allabout.

All current and potentialcheerleaders are invited to attendopen practices.

New and beginning cheerlead-ers are welcome.

Visit www.mtlaurelcheer.comfor more information.

Cheerleading openpractices approach

Statewide DomesticViolence Hotline

(800) 572-7233

PSA

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MOTHER'S DAY COLORING CONTEST

• Must be original form. • Only one entry per person.• Coloring must be done by using colored pencils, watercolors and/or crayons. • Entries must be received by 5 p.m. on May 9, 2016, and cannot be returned.

• Ages 1-17 • Entries will be judged by Sun Newspaper staff and will be based on overall coloring.

• Three winners will be notified by phone/email and posted on Sun Newspapers' social media sites.• Winners will receive 4-pack to Sahara Sams. • Prizes will be mailed to the address listed on the entry form.

Mail to: Elauwit Media, 108 Kings Hwy. East, 3rd Floor, Haddonfield, NJ 08033

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The following reports are onfile with the Mt. Laurel Police:

At 11:07 p.m. on April 21, Mt.

Laurel Police conducted a motorvehicle stop on Fellow-ship Road near Route73. During the stop, of-ficers arrested a male,age 48, of Voorhees. Hewas charged with driv-ing while intoxicated and re-leased pending a court hearing.

At 10:17 p.m. on April 20, Mt.Laurel Police located a suspiciousoccupied vehicle in Spencer Park,

Ramblewood Parkway. During theinvestigation, officers arrested amale, age 26, of Mt. Laurel. Hewas charged with possession of

less than 50 grams of marijuanaand released pending a courthearing.

At 8:23 p.m. on April 20, Mt.Laurel Police respond-ed to the report of anunresponsive personin a vehicle in theparking lot of 200Larchmont Blvd. The

arriving officer quickly deter-mined that the 23-year-old malefrom Mount Holly had overdosedon heroin. The officer adminis-tered Narcan and revived the vic-tim. He was transported to the

hospital by Mt. Laurel EMS forfurther treatment.

At 12:30 a.m. on April 20, Mt.

Laurel Police conducted a motorvehicle stop on Route 73 near 295.During the stop, officers arresteda female, age 23, of Clifton

Heights, Pa., after she provided afalse name to officers to avoid atraffic summons. She wascharged with hindering her own

apprehension and released pend-ing a court hearing.


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Instead, Backus has decided toenlist in the United States MarineCorps. Backus will leave New Jer-sey for boot camp on July 25 andplans to be a thrower for the Ma-rine Corps track team.

“I firmly believe you shouldfind any way you can to serveyour country, whether it’s being apolice officer, firefighter, enlist inthe military or even become a

teacher and help out,” Backussaid. “Just do something that willgive back to your community.”

Backus said he planned to jointhe Marines at some point in the

near future, but felt it made themost sense to do it right afterhigh school.

“I figured I can join theMarines,” he said. “I can get theeducation I want for howeverlong I want for however many de-grees I want and I can still throwfor their team and still continuemy track career.”

Before joining the Marine

Corps, Backus has some unfin-ished business to take care of atLenape. In the 2015 spring seasonand 2015-16 winter season, Backus

just barely missed a spot in the

Group IV championships. Lastspring, his throw of 136 feet in thediscus was good enough for 10thplace in sectionals, but notenough to get him in the top-six toadvance to the state meet.

“Junior year, I had a realchance and I flubbed it,” Backussaid. “This year, it was more of apush to see how far we could gothis season and finish out my sen-

ior year with a bang.”Last February, Backus came

close again to states, this time inthe shot put. This time, Backusfinished in eighth place with a

throw of 42-feet, 6.5-inches.Backus finished just 5.5 inches be-hind sixth place, and he wasagain denied a spot at the statechampionships.

“It wasn’t even the fact that Iwas a couple inches away frommaking it to states,” Backus said.“If I made a halfway decent toss, Iwould have gotten into states au-tomatically. I lost it at the end.”

This spring, Backus has madehuge strides to improve his per-formance, especially in the dis-cus. At the Jack Armstrong Invi-tational in Abington, Pa., on April

23, Backus set a new personal bestwith a throw of 145-feet, 4-inches.The throw is the best of any ath-lete from the Olympic Conferenceso far this season.

Keith Giberson, the throwingcoach for the Lenape boys’ trackand field team, said Backus hasput in a lot of work both during

BACKUSContinued from page 1

please see TEAM, page 15

Backus sets new personal best in discus at Jack Armstrong Invitational

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and outside of the season to im-prove.

“(During the summer) I sawhim with three or four other guys,four times a week, putting in theextra time or extra homework heneeded to do outside the twohours of practice we have,”Giberson said. “He does a lot of work outside of practice time.”

Giberson saw Backus’ talentduring his sophomore season.

“One hundred feet is this magi-cal mark that you can get the av-erage kid to reach over the courseof a few years,” Giberson said.“At the end of his sophomoreyear, he was at 120 (feet). At thatpoint, I saw that he had the me-chanics where I could polish himup and he could do a lot better.”

Despite not picking up discusuntil high school, Backus got achance to throw at sectionals forthe first time as a sophomore.

Even since then, he has been mo-tivated to get past that hurdle andcompete at states.

Advancing to states isn’t theonly goal for Backus. He is also

trying to break the Lenape schoolrecord for discus. The currentrecord of 164-feet, 7-inches wasset by Ray Stinsman in 2010.

“He’s got all the pieces to thepuzzle,” Giberson said. “It’s justfinding that one throw where itall comes together in the righttime and the right place.”

Giberson is working withBackus on a few small technicalimprovements to try to get him tothe 164-foot mark.

One other goal Backus has isteam-focused. He wants to helpLenape score as many points aspossible in the throwing competi-tions to help the team at meets.

“When I got into it, our throwsteam would put up some points,but they wouldn’t put up a lot,” hesaid. “Now we’re starting to putup 10, 15 points. We’re starting toshow that we’re something to bereckoned with.”

TEAMContinued from page 14

Team is focus for Backus, too

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teacher and support staff mem-ber are required by incomingninth-grade students’ IndividualEducation Plans.

LRHSD graduation rates areamong the highest in the state at95.5 percent for the class of 2015,with 92.5 percent of graduatescontinuing their education inmore than 286 four-year and two-year colleges and universities.

The district gives students theopportunity to get a head start ontheir college education by offer-ing the College Acceleration Pro-gram, with 1,245 students partici-pating in 2015-16 and earning col-lege credits through Rowan Col-lege at Burlington County.

“Our students will earn nearly8,500 college credits this year

alone,” Birnbohm said. “This pro-gram, offered at no additionalcost to the district or taxpayers,gives students a jump on continu-

ing education and, equally impor-tant, helps offset college costs forstudents and their families.”

Other LRHSD cost-saving ini-tiatives range from shared servic-es agreements with the sendingdistricts to per pupil administra-tive costs that are significantlylower than other regional dis-tricts. This school year, the aver-age per student administrativecost of $1,506 is $476 below thestate-mandated regional limit of $1,982 per student.

The LRHSD also benefits fromfundraising efforts and donationsfrom a range of community andalumni groups. In addition, thedistrict receives corporate andfoundation grant funding, whichrecently included grants fromLockheed Martin in the amount

of $31,200 for two school years.The grants are funding the incor-poration of a comprehensiveSTEM program, Project Lead the

Way, into the current course of study.

“This year, individual and com-munity group donations reacheda total of $2.55 million con-tributed to the district since the2007-2008 school year,” Birnbohmsaid. “Our parents, alumni andcommunity members are activein the district and integral to ourstudents’ success. Their financialsupport complements their in-volvement, making it possible forus to provide our students and thecommunity with improved athlet-ic facilities, new equipment andlife-changing experiences.”

Budget information, includingtax impacts for each sending dis-trict, is posted on the Lenape Re-gional High School District web-site, www.lrhsd.org. For more in-formation, contact Business Ad-ministrator James Hager at (609)268-2000 ext. 5536 or

[email protected]. District offi-cials will hold their next Board of

Education meeting on Wednes-day, May 11 at the administrationbuilding in Shamong at 7:30 p.m.

STATEContinued from page 3

State aid increased by $67,820

Send us your Mt. Laurel news

Have a news tip? Want to send us a press release or photos? Shootan interesting video? Drop us an email at [email protected] us at (856) 427-0934. Call the editor at (856) 427-0933.

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Be social.Like us onFacebook!

www.facebook.com/mtlaurelsun

The Sun isn't just in print. Likeus on Facebookfor additional

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TALENTED

ORGANAND PIANOPLAYERWANTED

(BORN AGAIN)

For Church service (once a week)Will compensate $100.Call 609-386-1550

SEAN LAJOIE/The Sun

Lenape High School topped CherryHill High School East last week, 5-1.Ben Rodier, below, picked up histhird win of the season as the Indi-ans improved their record to 6-2.

Clockwise from above: Ben Harrissteps into a pitch at the plate. MikeDoulong makes a sliding catch inleft field to save a run. AJ Penafields a groundball cleanly and de-livers a strike to first.

Lenape tops Cherry Hill East, 5-1

Send us your Mt. Laurel news

Drop us an email at [email protected] us at (856) 427-0934. Call the editor at (856) 427-0933.

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grade. Upgrades to other gradelevels are planned for futurebudgets.

Another item in the budget isthe materials needed for the NextGeneration Science Standards forgrades six to eight. Multiplestates, including New Jersey, haveadopted new science standardsthat go into effect in September.

Money has also been budgetedfor the district to upgrade readingcomprehension assessments, Sci-ence Technology EngineeringMath materials and materials forthe district’s Journey’s literacyprogram.

“We’re going to be continuing alot of initiatives that have beenstarted and moving forward thatcan be completed and implement-ed in our schools,” Rafferty said.

The budget also includes cer-tain technology upgrades, includ-

ing the purchase of additionalChromebook laptops for studentsand the continued installation of projectors in classroom ceilings.

For teachers who did not havetheir computers upgraded withthe district’s last budget, this

budget will see that those teach-ers get computer upgrades as

well.With the 2016-2017 school year

budget, the BOE also saw an in-crease in state aid money of about $90,000, bringing the totalmoney received in state aid to $4.4million.

However, as school business ad-ministrator Robert Wachter Jr.noted, the $4.4 million figure wasstill below the $5.8 million the dis-trict received in state aid in the2009-2010 school year before cutstook place throughout the statethe following year.

“We’re about $1.3 million lessthan what we were in 2009-2010,yet we’re still able to maintaineverything that we have andmove forward,” Wachter said.

Wachter also outlined multiplecapital improvements included inthe budget, a roof replacementproject at Hartford School, adrainage project for the front of Springville School, painting atLarchmont, Hartford,

Springville, Hillside and Parkwayschools, carpet to tile work atSpringville and closet and case-work at Parkway.

“As George stated, we’re stillcontinuing with our curriculumand a lot of our investments intechnology, but this budget is alsosupporting some major capitalimprovements, and we’re excitedabout that,” Wachter said.

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