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By MICHELLE MOLZ
Courier-Post Staff
The search is on for a new superintendent to shepherd the Mount Laurel school district into the future.
Arthur E. Merz, superintendent since 1995, will retire on Aug. 31. His position has been advertised, but interviews and screening have not begun yet, according to district spokeswoman Marie Reynolds.
Merz took the helm at a crucial time in the district's history. Under his guidance, the K-8 district, which currently serves 4,527 students, expanded to handle a dramatic population increase in the 1990s.
According to the U.S. Census, the number of township children ages 5-14 grew from 3,720 in 1990 to 5,401 in 2000, an increase of 31 percent.
But now the boom is over. Officials project about 47,000 residents will live here when the township reaches build- out in the next seven to nine years. Population was 40,221 in 2000, up from 30,270 in 1990, according to the census.
To accommodate that growth, the past decade was marked by school expansion projects. A $13.9 million referendum, approved in 1993, funded construction of the Hartford School, built in 1995 on the corner of Hartford and Hainesport-Mount Laurel roads. Less than five years later, 14 new classrooms were added at a cost of $2.9 million. A $ 22.3 million bond referendum in 1999 financed the new Springville Elementary School and expansions at Hartford and Thomas E. Harrington middle schools.
The expansions lowered the average class size to about 20 students, Reynolds said.
But focusing on growth has made it difficult for the district to undertake new initiatives, such as full-day kindergarten.
School administrators studied the issue of full-day kindergarten in 1998 and determined that 22 new classrooms would have to be built, and the number of teachers and aides would nearly double, Reynolds said.
"There was no way we could provide that in the district," she said. The plan was scrapped before cost estimates were calculated. Currently, 13 classrooms are used twice daily to accommodate 363 kindergartners.
State aid comprises about 10 percent of the district's $ 46.5 million budget, Reynolds said.
"Taxpayers are funding 90 percent of our budget - that's essentially funding a private school system," she said.
School taxes rose from $1.144 per $100 of assessed property value in 1997 to $1.203 in 2001. A taxpayer with a home assessed at $150,000 pays $1,845 to support local schools, up from $1,716 in 1997 - a 7 percent increase. Residents are assessed a separate regional school tax to support the Lenape Regional High School District.
Parental involvement in the district is high, with active Parent Teacher Organization members hosting fund- raisers to provide extra equipment and educational materials.
"The schools strongly motivate and really require a high level of parent participation," said TaRessa Stovall, whose son, Calvin, is a 5th grader at Hartford and daughter, Mariah, is a 3rd grader at Larchmont.
District teachers, aides, secretaries and custodians just finished negotiating a new contract that calls for annual salary increases of 5.4 percent this year and 5.3 percent in 2003 and 2004.
The new pact will raise starting teacher salaries from $34, 530 to $40,000 by 2004.
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