By Andrew Coen
Karant, who has served as District 15's curriculum director for humanities for grades six through 12 since August 2003, has many goals, but knows she has big shoes to fill following Michelle L. Lineal, who retired Jan. 3 after four years on the job. "She's like a mentor to me," said Karant, whose new role as Lawrence's curriculum chief became official with the approval of the school board at its Jan. 24 meeting. "I'm really honored to be selected to follow her."
It was 16 years ago that Karant first came to Lawrence Middle School, serving as assistant principal from January 1990 to 2003. She said she hopes the knowledge she gained in her role as assistant principal and as an administrator will help her achieve her goals, which include improving literacy and raising test scores, while still allowing students to thrive with creative thinking. In her role as humanities curriculum director, she supervised all English and social studies classes for the middle school and high school.
"When we hire someone from our district who knows what is going on here, it's always a plus," said school board President Frank Parise.
Lawrence Superintendent Dr. John Fitzsimons said that with Karant's experience supervising middle and high school students, she will help improve achievement of students in grades six through 12 to go along with the recent gains achieved at the school. "She brings a wealth of experience to the job," said Fitzsimons.
Karant, like her predecessor, is not a proponent of strictly judging students' progress on standardized tests, but she said the district must continue to improve in meeting the federal requirements set forth in the No Child Left Behind Act. "NCLB might not be an ideal educational plan, but it is a goal of ours to meet that criteria," said Karant.
One of the many challenges facing districts across the state, according to Karant, is non-English-speaking students who enter schools and are immediately required to take the state's English as a Second Language exam. The results are counted with those of other students, even though the new students have not yet learned English and are not expected to perform well on the tests. "I would prefer to measure an individual's progress more than a cohort," said Karant.
She said she will do everything she can to see that the district gets off an austerity budget, where it has been mired following three straight years of budget defeats. "In a democratic society, it is important that all citizens support public education," Karant said.
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