Here’s a recap highlighting just some of the most newsworthy events from the year.
The year 2018 is nearly done, so perhaps it’s only right for residents to reflect on just some of The Sun’s biggest stories of 2018.
With that, here’s a recap highlighting just some of the most newsworthy events from the year.
Council and BOE reorganize
The year started as it always does with Mt. Laurel Township Council and the Mt. Laurel Schools Board of Education holding their annual reorganization meetings.
For the township, there were no council elections in 2017, which meant there were no new members of council to seat.
This also meant council continued with a full, five-Republican majority for the year.
However, the township did continue its annual tradition of rotating the members of council who would fill the roles of mayor and deputy mayor.
For 2018, Councilmember Rich Van Noord was selected as mayor, and Councilmember Dennis Riley was selected as deputy mayor.
Also on hand for council reorganization meeting was Doug Forrester, the state’s 2002 Republican nominee for U.S. Senate and the 2005 Republican nominee for governor. Van Noord had described Forrester as a political mentor.
Looking forward to the year, Van Noord said he and his fellow councilmembers wanted to make decisions best for the residents of Mt. Laurel.
“Regardless of all the noise involving issues of the state or issues of the nation, this council focuses only on what we can control, and that is how can we make Mt. Laurel a better place to work, live and raise a family,” Van Noord said.
As for the Mt. Laurel Schools BOE, the BOE reseated incumbent members Christine Dickson, Diane Blair and Margaret Haynes. All three had run unopposed for their seats in 2017.
The board also once again selected board member Marc Jones as president and Blair as vice president for the year.
Jones and Blair had previously served in those roles for 2017. The BOE traditionally chooses the same president and vice president for two consecutive years.
“I’m very honored to have been re-nominated and re-elected, and I’m excited about some of the changes we’re putting through with the Path to Success (the board’s ongoing strategic planning initiative) that we’ve started, as well as moving forward with updating our schools as best we can in 2018,” Jones said at the BOE’s reorganization meeting.
Council passes 2018 municipal budget with no tax increase
It was another year of flat municipal taxes for residents when council passed the 2018 municipal budget with no tax increase.
With this year’s budget totaling $38.6 million, residents’ municipal tax rate remain unchanged from the 2017 rate of 34.7 cents per every $100 of assessed property value.
With those figures, residents with a home valued at the average assessed rate of $237,600 were set to pay about $832 in municipal property taxes for the year.
As in past years, township officials said municipal taxes constituted about 12 percent of a resident’s overall tax bill, with the remaining 88 percent split between the various other taxing entities.
Specifically, township officials reminded residents that K-8 school district taxes are about 39 percent of their total bill, Lenape Regional High School District taxes are about 24 percent of their total bill, Burlington County taxes are about 15 percent of their total tax bill, taxes for the local fire district are about 6 percent of their total tax bill, taxes for open space funding are about at 3 percent of their total tax bill and taxes for the Mt. Laurel Library are about 1 percent of their total tax bill.
When looking at this year’s budget in conjunction with years past, Van Noord said that from the years from 2014 through 2018, the township’s budget only increased 1.5 percent, while the overall inflation rate was 5 percent.
“I believe this shows members of the council have been good stewards of our township finances,” Van Noord said upon passage of the 2018 budget.
Mt. Laurel Schools BOE passes budget focusing on security upgrades and more
In late April, the Mt. Laurel Schools Board of Education passed the district’s budget for the 2018–2019 school year.
This year’s budget set total appropriations at $75.8 million, which was a slight increase from 2017’s appropriations of $75.1 million.
With this year’s budget, local K-8 school taxes increased about 2.4 percent or $61.77 for the year on the average home assessed at $237,600.
With the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Parkland, Fla., in February still fresh in the minds of officials when crafting this year’s budget, the district’s 2018–2019 budget also included a wide-range of new security measures for schools.
Specifically, the budget included money to install vestibules at all eight schools,
upgrade classroom door locks, add to the several hundred security cameras the district already had installed and install strobe lights in the all purpose rooms of schools to warn noisy rooms of emergencies.
The budget also funded the new position of district student assistance coordinator to help focus on at-risk students.
“We’re taking a balanced view to our approach to the needs of our security, and part of reducing school violence is also making sure we have the necessary resources and supports for both mental health and student interventions for students who are at risk,” Superintendent George Rafferty said when the budget was passed.
Mt. Laurel Township and Mt. Laurel Schools agree to add second school resource officer to the district
The township officially dedicated a second school resource officer to increase security for schools this year.
Mt. Laurel Police Officer David Sweely, a 19-year veteran of the force, was chosen as the new SRO to work Officer Lester Hann, the district’s current SRO who has been with the township police department for 10 years.
According to Rafferty at the time of the announcement, the district is always looking for new ways to improve school security.
District officials were also thankful to township officials for reaching out to offer assistance.
“I appreciate the fact that not only did they want to help, but they wanted to help us in a way that was beneficial to us … we would never be able to do this as a school system on our own without their generosity,” Rafferty said
In addition to providing security, Rafferty said SROs work in an “educational capacity” by developing relationships with parents and students.
Van Noord also praised the addition of the new SRO earlier this year, noting the district could use the second officer due to its size and the thousands of students enrolled.
“We were happy to be part of it, and we know the concerns of parents,” Van Noord said. “I think the second resource officer is going to do a great service to the students of the township, because we know the key to making sure incidents don’t happen in the future is to identify the threats before they even exist.”
Mt. Laurel Schools BOE and Mt. Laurel Education Association settle contract
This year also saw the Mt. Laurel Education Association and the Mt. Laurel Schools BOE come to terms on a new contract.
With about 560 members, the board recognizes the MLEA as the sole representative for collective negotiation for the district’s certified teachers, secretaries, custodians, assistants, library aides, nurse aides, office aides, preschool handicap aides, aides to classrooms, aides to classrooms (autistic), aides to classrooms (hygienic), applied behavior analysis trainers, student information managers, signing interpreters, technology assistants, occupational therapists, technology facilitators and intervenors for deaf and blind.
Although the previous contract between the two entities ended in June 2017, the two sides did not come to a new agreement until June of this year.
The new agreement lasts through 2020.
Although negotiations between the two sides had been ongoing since the last contract ended in June 2017, it wasn’t until February when members of MLEA assembled outside of a BOE meeting that the dispute gained media attention.
“We’re hoping that our presence here will send a clear message that we are wanting to get a contract done, and that we are unified, and we’re here to do what we need to get a contract,“ association president Doug Bozarth said at the time.
The two sides eventually came to an agreement in June, with the new contract keeping the base salary for starting teachers the same while slightly increasing the average salary and raising the highest step on the district’s guide.
A big year for open space acquisitions and improvements
Whether it was expanding an existing park, opening a new park, or just refurbishing fields and playground equipment, it was a big year for open space in the township.
In April, the township officially opened its new park on Elbo Lane.
The township originally purchased the space in 2007, which at the time, was covered with branches, weeds and other debris.
With this year’s opening a decade later, the land became a new park with paved walking paths, benches and newly planted trees courtesy of the Mt. Laurel Rotary.
This July also saw the township fulfill a longtime dream of residents by replacing the playground equipment at Laurel Acres Park.
The upgrades included new jungle gyms, as well as a rubber material for flooring meant to be safer and softer than the previous wood mulch flooring.
Township officials say the new equipment is also more accessible to children or families with disabilities.
In addition, in November the township announced it had signed an agreement to purchase an additional 20 acres of land next to Laurel Acres Park along Union Mill Road, effectively expanding the park itself.
With the land, township officials had plans to install new walking paths and more.
This year also saw the township acquire what is known as the St. John Neumann Monastery property — 71 acres of the total 88 acres available adjacent to St. John Neumann Church.
Adjacent to, but not including St. John Neumann Church, the property includes lands where the monastery formerly owned by Cistercians Monks was located.
With that, the township has plans to use the building as public meeting space.
“The township continues to try and find ways to save the township from over-development,” Van Noord said at the time of the purchase “Some of the development in our township is out of our control and state-mandated, but when we have a chance to preserve the character of this township, we will do whatever we can to make it happen.”
This year also saw Mt. Laurel Township hold a grand opening for new and refurbished turf fields at Memorial Park.
With that, the new field and original field support various sports, including soccer, lacrosse, field hockey and football.
According to officials, the new field cost slightly less than $1 million, and work to improve the original field was about half that much.
However, as with all the previously listed open space improvements, none of these purchases or improvements caused taxes to increase for Mt. Laurel residents, as the money was taken from the township’s open space fund.
In 2017, voters approved a rule that would allow the township to use the fund to purchase new space and improve existing space already owned by the township.
Mt. Laurel Schools approves strategic plan and voters approve referendum
This year saw Mt. Laurel Schools use the information gained from residents and stakeholders at three strategic planning forums held in 2017 to create a new, three-year strategic plan.
At those meetings, stakeholders were asked to identify what they liked about the district and what they would like to see change in the future.
Two of their most frequent responses for what they would like to see in the future were a full-day kindergarten and improvements to district buildings and facilities.
With that in mind, the district crafted a $35.5 million referendum question that voters approved in October.
According to Mt. Laurel Schools, voters approved the referendum by a vote of 2,552 for the question, versus 646 against it.
With the successful passage, the district is planning the construction needed for a successful opening of a full-day kindergarten program by the start of the 2019–2020 school year.
According to the district, plans include building classrooms at Fleetwood Elementary School and Larchmont Elementary School, in addition to making alterations at the district’s other elementary schools.
As for additional capital improvements, the referendum will allow the district to replace fire alarm systems, boilers and HVAC systems in all school buildings.
There are also plans to partially or fully replace the roofs at Countryside, Fleetwood, Parkway and Springville elementary schools, as well as and Hartford Upper Elementary School.
Of note about the referendum, its passage will not contribute to any increase in the K-8 school taxes that residents pay.
As the district will soon pay off existing debt service, and the district will receive about 40 percent state aid on more than $31 million of the referendum’s costs, any new costs from referendum will still be less than what the district currently pays.
Voters ask for new faces on Mt. Laurel Township Council in 2019
Big political changes also came to the township in final months of 2018.
In the November general election, local Democrats Kareem Pritchett and Stephen Steglik ousted incumbent Republicans Van Noord and Riley to win two open seats on Mt. Laurel Township Council.
According to the Burlington County Board of Elections, Pritchett received 10,778 votes, Steglik received 10,703 votes, Van Noord received 8,773 votes and Riley received 8,686 votes.
With the Democratic victories, the campaign said “history had been made in Mt. Laurel,” with Pritchett being the first African-American to win a council seat in town and Steglik being the youngest person to win a seat at age 28.
Pritchett works as a state corrections police officer, while Steglik is a marketing and communications coordinator.
With the election of Pritchett and Steglik, Mt. Laurel Township Council will move to a 3–2 Republican majority in 2019.
In comments made to The Sun reflecting on their victory, Steglik said the Democratic campaign made it a goal to ask residents what they wanted from their elected officials.
“As Kareem and I canvassed neighborhoods, residents spoke to us about building a greater sense of community in Mt. Laurel through transparency and by being a proactive, visible council,” Steglik said. “On election night, we saw a massive turnout, which is nothing short of fantastic for our democracy and our community, but now the real work begins.”
The results in Mt. Laurel follow similar results in neighboring Moorestown and Marlton, where the longtime Republican strongholds also saw victories by Democrats.
Burlington County as a whole also voted against Republicans this year, with two Republican freeholders and the county clerk losing their races for reelection as well as Burlington County voting in a large margin against Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ 3), who also lost his race for reelection as well.
Several of MacArthur’s votes and actions had become unpopular in the area, included legislation he helped advance in the U.S. House (which was ultimately defeated in the U.S. Senate) through which states would have been able to waive a requirement in the Affordable Care Act that prohibits insurance companies from using pre-existing conditions to charge consumers higher prices for health insurance premiums.
MacArthur was also the sole congressional representative from New Jersey to vote for the federal income tax overhaul that put a $10,000 federal cap on the SALT (state and local tax) deduction used by many New Jersey residents.
Members of Lenape High School marching band take part in 6ABC Dunkin’ Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade
Students from Lenape High School and Seneca High Schools joined together this year to participate in the 6ABC Dunkin’ Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade throughout the streets of Philadelphia.
The performance was the first by any band from the district in the historic parade.
Prior to the parade, the schools had earned a total of 27 state, regional and national championships titles.
According to the district, Lenape High School director Steven Waldron reached out to Seneca High School director Keith Styers regarding the collaboration, with hopes of expanding community involvement to a regional or national level.
New and familiar faces on the local BOE for 2019
As with Mt. Laurel Township Council, the Mt. Laurel Schools BOE will also be a mix of new and familiar faces in 2019.
In the race for three open seats on the Mt. Laurel Schools Board of Education, incumbent Leigh Ann Erlanger received 11,893 votes, incumbent Melissa DeClementi received 11,860 votes and newcomer Anthony Ruttler, Jr. received 11,283 votes.
Ruttler will fill the seat held by board member Maureen Sojka, who chose not to run for reelection after her term ended this year.
In the race for one open seat on the Lenape Regional High School District Board of Education to represent Mt. Laurel, incumbent John Jeffers received 12,724 votes.
