Growing in Excellence

Late last night, while looking up an e-mail address, I was struck by the historic photo on the cover of the Haddonfield Student Directory. The photo is of Haddonfield’s Grove Street School, the first public school in Camden County, built 100 years ago.

Haddonfield’s history with education can be traced back even further to the Friends School built in 1786, which was originally a “common school” until it was turned over to the Friends. That’s over 224 years of education history in this town.

Public education was a priority for our predecessors, and it is a legacy that we must protect. Our school district’s logo with its iconic tree “Growing in Excellence” was designed by a high school classmate of mine back in 1987 – I love that the logo is still used and that the message and mission of the district has been maintained. I love many things about this town: the people, the shops, the restaurants, the architecture and the history, but for me this is all rooted in the schools.

The 2010 - 2011 school budget may be one for the history books. The loss of state aid sure seems historically significant. Personally I hope it goes down in history as the year that, despite a terrible economy and faced with a desperate budget shortfall, the community came together to levy funds to save teaching positions and maintain educational excellence.