125 years of Lawrence schools impacts many

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Lawrence School District celebrated its 125th anniversary earlier this month. While the dinner-dance was postponed due to a Jan. 7 snowstorm, the ebullient spirit of the district and all of its past and present faculty and students wasn’t dampened. The Lawrence philharmonic orchestra performed on Jan. 8. It was well attended and a resounding success.   

Comprised of adult members of the community, Lawrence alumni and current students, the orchestra’s flawless performance that Sunday evening perfectly exemplified the standard of excellence that has long been associated with Lawrence’s reputation renowned for its academic, music and art programs. The Lawrence motto captures our essence as a district as accurately as it ever did: diversity, pride, tradition. 

As a Lawrence High School senior, I can say with complete conviction that my two older sisters and I are the proud beneficiaries of the best possible education as residents of this amazing district. It is where I have found the most nurturing and encouraging teaching staff, and where I have forged lifelong friendships with the wisest, funniest and most loyal group of peers. 

After transferring at the beginning of fifth grade to Lawrence Middle School from a local private day school without a music program, I longed to learn how to play the violin. Despite the fact that a general music program begins for all Lawrence students in the first grade, and a full instrumental and choral program starts in earnest in third grade, Lawrence Superintendent Gary Schall found a mentor for me in the high school’s then-concert master who generously imparted free-of-charge her own passion and knowledge for music and her instrument to a 10- year-old novice. 

After nearly a year of weekly music lessons, I auditioned privately for Pamela Gallopini, the district’s music coordinator, who deemed that I had sufficiently caught up to join the school orchestra in sixth grade. Today, I am a proud first violinist in the Lawrence High orchestra who will perform — along with her fellow musicians, dancers and singers —this March for the second time at Disney World in Orlando. 

I asked some of my peers to define what 125 years of Lawrence excellence meant to them; the responses I received were nothing less than heartfelt and inspiring. Senior Erika Kirchner of Meadowmere emphasized her own family’s personal ties to this school district: “My grandpa went to Lawrence. My father and five aunts went to Lawrence. My cousins and older brother graduated from Lawrence. This year, I will graduate from Lawrence. In the next six years, my younger brothers and sister will graduate, as well. The Lawrence public school system did not just mean getting a great education for me; it is part of my family’s history and a warm and loving community that I hope to remain an avid member of for a very long time.”

The cultural mosaic aspect that defines the district has left an indelible and lasting impression on junior Ruby Levine of Woodmere: “Lawrence emphasizes the diversity, pride, and tradition of our district. The fact that so much has gone on in the walls of our school truly shows the culture of a Lawrencian and the uniqueness of our school.” 

Senior Allen Green, of North Woodmere, reflected on the quality of education that he personally received throughout his years in the district: “Lawrence means opportunity. If you want to succeed, Lawrence will give you the guidance and the resources to get there.” 

Junior Ethan Breban, also of North Woodmere, offered his perspective on type of education provided by Lawrence faculty members: “To me, [125 years of excellence] means the kind of quality education Lawrence has been giving its students, thanks to the tremendous efforts put forth by its teaching staff. These people have been positively influencing the lives of so many young people for over 125 years.” 

Ask any alumni of Lawrence, and you are bound to get an earful on how Lawrence personally shaped and influenced their own lives for the better through its superlative teaching staff and faculty. Lawrence schools has been positively molding the futures of generations of students for more than a century, and, in the words of Schall, “the best is yet to come.”