The Washington Township Board of Education recently earned the Carole E. Larsen Master Board certification.
Named after a veteran field service representative who died in 2007, a board of education must keep its board certification status current and then earn 10 more credits within two years to earn the prestigious certification, which in its 15 years of existence, has only been awarded to about 50 boards.
Washington Township now joins its Morris County board colleagues in Harding Township, Boonton Township, Pequannock Township, Denville, Netcong, Roxbury, Long Hill Township, Morris School District, Wharton Borough and Montville Township as one of the boards earning this distinction.
Certification signifies to the community and staff that the board is a team interested in building shared knowledge, values and a commitment to working together to improve student achievement.
The Washington Township Board was first certified in 2001 and again in 2022. In the past two years, the board has continued to onboard new members and has scheduled regular training opportunities to stay focused on the foundations of ethics, the evaluation of the chief school administrator and a review of the board self-evaluation.
The board has an annual goal-setting retreat, including last year’s in one of Long Valley’s beautiful parks, to go through a thoughtful process that includes a SWOT analysis to identify district and board goals. The board also established a governance committee that has been working hard to advance the board’s governance work further and is embarking on a superintendent search.