By John Burton
RED BANK – Education is about learning but it’s not only the students who are learning in a school setting.
“I think I have learned so incredibly much,” said Superintendent of Schools Laura Morana, who is retiring on Sept. 30. Working in the district has taught her to deal with a relatively large operation and staff, “learning how to deal with crisis and learning how to work with the community.
“It has certainly made me a stronger individual,” she said.
Morana, 55, has been with the district for a little more than seven years, coming to Red Bank after working as an assistant superintendent in the Piscataway school district.
Morana announced her plans recently to retire from the district. She said she initially hadn’t considered leaving her job but “opportunities presented themselves.” She is currently evaluating those opportunities. While she declined to be more specific about what the future may hold, she said she feels “more confident than I ever felt” and that she is leaving the district in good hands.
The Red Bank district traditionally has been a very diverse one, with about 40 percent of students speaking English as a second language. About 81 percent of the student population qualifies economically for the free or reduced cost lunch program, a traditional indicator of the poverty level of a community.
During her tenure in Red Bank, the district has had a significant growth in student population, increasing from about 790 students when Morana started to the current 1,393. That increase, which resulted in some additional state aid, meant the district had to look for alternative locations to house students. School officials worked out arrangements with the Community YMCA and Monmouth Day Care Center and other sites to ensure there would be enough classroom space.
Morana said there have been accomplishments the district can point to in her time here, including Chinese being offered in the middle school as a foreign language option. The intent was “to expose our kids to other languages” and cultures and to help “make our kids more marketable, if you will,” she said. The language option was also intended to make Red Bank students more competitive as they enter Red Bank Regional High School, with students from Little Silver and Shrewsbury.
She also pointed to the AVID program. An acronym for Advancement Via Individual Determination, the program is aimed at the “child in the middle,” she said, who is earning C’s or lower, and very likely wasn’t giving college serious consideration because of grades and other factors. The program “truly addresses the needs of those students … Kids begin to think, I could get to college,” she said of the individualized program.
Four years ago, the district established a full-day, pre-kindergarten program, which now serves 150 students. The program, which once had a waiting list, now can accommodate all students that want to attend, she said.
There is also the musical program for string instruments, which was made possible through a donation from an anonymous benefactor. That program, in addition to teaching kids to play the instruments, allows the students to take the instruments home to practice without charge.
The partnerships school officials and different organizations have fostered have been of a real benefit for the students, she said. The district has worked and is working with such organizations as the Community YMCA, the Boys and Girls Club of Monmouth County, Count Basie Theatre and the Two River Theater Company to give students access to cultural, recreational and educational opportunities they may not have been able to get any other way. “These are resources that many other districts do not have,” she said.
Many challenges remain, she said, pointing to the task of working on increasing test scores and the struggle to continue to meet the needs of the school population with limited money.
Morana would have liked to see every student in the district have a laptop or tablet by this point.
While educators are getting computers to their students, it has been done in stages and is taking longer than hoped, she said.
She stressed that the team in place in the district is prepared to continue meeting the needs of the district and moving forward as she prepares to leave.
“The teachers are very dedicated and the administrative team is solid,” she said.
Even though she’s leaving, Morana said she would make herself available to the board of education to assist whoever is selected as interim superintendent.
She is happy for the knowledge she has obtained while running the district.
“I have gained so much in terms of my professional toolbox of what an administrator should have in terms of skills,” she said.
