NJ News & Views

[Editor's Note: At 10:21 a.m. on February 20 and at 4:38 p.m. on February 21, 2012, this story was edited for style, content and accuracy.]

The services of uniformed Lakewood police officers are in demand.

At the February 13 meeting of the Lakewood Board of Education, members voted to dismiss district contractor Tri-County Security of Vineland in order to hire off-duty or retired Lakewood Township police officers in their place.

Demand may exceed supply.

Earlier this year, Committeeman Steven Langert announced in media reports that the township was seeking wage concessions from all municipal unions to close a multi-million-dollar budget deficit projected during 2012. Langert warned that without a wage freeze, the township might have to lay off union employees, including Lakewood police officers.

In November 2010, the township received state approval from the Civil Service Commission to lay off 13 municipal union employees that included Lakewood police and township inspectors.

Committeemen negotiated a settlement with union representatives that did not include lay-offs.

As the Township of Lakewood grows into the City of Lakewood, reported incidents of crime throughout the municipality have grown as well.

The Lakewood Township Committee cannot afford to lay off police officers to save money.

The Lakewood Board of Education cannot afford to dismiss its security contractor to save money either.

The board knows what can happen without adequate security on school property.

On November 12, 2007, Lakewood Township police responded to a call for service at Lakewood High School.

"Nearly 150 students attacked each other, innocent bystanders and even police," Star-Ledger reporter Maryann Spoto reported on November 13, 2007, one day after the riot. "The first officers to respond to the scene were set upon by combatants and needed to call in backup from several surrounding towns. Students said the fight was precipitated by rival black and Hispanic gangs, who had been sparring in recent days."

Spoto reported that police in full riot gear and using pepper spray and dogs finally restored order after 20 minutes of intense confrontation. During that time, attackers randomly chose their victims, including bystanders, students threw chairs and tables and some officers were pinned to the ground.

"Worried parents summoned to the school by cell phone calls from their children found it in a state of siege, and some were arrested when they refused to obey orders from police," Spoto reported.

The headline to Spoto's report was "Riot Erupts At Lakewood School, Nearly 150 involved in fight that students blame on feud between rival gangs."

After the 2007 high school riot, the board installed heightened security measures there and in other district public schools.

Those days are over.

In place of a security contractor, the board will be soliciting resumes for the position of security director.

"We'll be looking for a security director - our own director," board attorney and meeting parliamentarian Michael Inzelbuch said on February 13.

Last week, the board also approved public policy that will only increase the threat of violence to students attending Lakewood's other public schools - at taxpayer expense.

Instead of reforming transportation policy to all Lakewood public and non-public schools, the board approved a redistricting plan that consolidates transportation of younger children with older children in grades K-8 by creating "neighborhood" public schools.

According to presentations by Lakewood Transportation Director Gus (The Bus) Kakavas, who formerly directed the Toms River School District transportation services, and Georgian Court Sociology Professor Kasturi Dasgupta, older students preparing to graduate to Lakewood High School will mentor younger ones just starting their academic careers.

"The revolving door of the 2-year middle school does not promote security," Dasgupta said. "We have an opportunity to change that (by minimizing) the trauma of transition."

Dasgupta said redistricting the district's four elementary schools - Clifton Avenue, Ella G. Clarke, Spruce Street and Oak Street - and Lakewood Middle School into five K-8 schools would reduce fights, peer pressure and sexual activity.

Dasgupta did not present statistical documentation in support of her assertions.

"Are you promoting K-8 (redistricting)?" Inzelbuch asked Dasgupta.

She said yes.

"Have you worked with other (K-8) districts?" Inzelbuch also asked Dasgupta.

She said no.

Lakewood board member Carl Fink, a member of the Lakewood Planning Board, suggested Dasgupta run for election to the Lakewood Board of Education.

"I think you would have a great chance of winning," he said.

Kakavas said during his presentation that it was possible to deliver better transportation service under a K-8 configuration. He said the district's kindergarten enrollment was expected to increase to 600 students this year.

"I believe that number is going to be higher next year," Kakavas said.

He's right.

Despite a housing market downturn in many other areas of New Jersey, Lakewood developers are continuing to build. To reduce their cost of development, employers will continue to hire undocumented tradesmen from Mexico that live with their families in Lakewood.

Under current Federal law, all children are entitled to a free public school education, whether or not they are living in the United States legally.

According to Dasgupta, 85 percent of Lakewood public school students are children of immigrants, both documented and undocumented.

"Will they get work?" she asked rhetorically during her presentation. "Will they get apprehended (by United States immigration officials)? Will they get deported? Children carry the anxiety of their parents' fears every day. They need a place of security, of belonging. School is a safe haven, a sanctuary (so they) may concentrate on their studies."

According to Kakavas, school buses that transport K-8 students in assigned seats will accomplish the same goal.

"At my former job at Toms River, older children (riding the same bus to non-public schools) "mentored" younger children," Kakavas said. "(Lakewood) children will have a different attitude (if they do the same)."

Kakavas attributed the problems in Lakewood public schools to lack of a clearly-defined sending area. By reconfiguring public school transportation through redistricting, Kakavas said the district could create "neighborhood" schools.

"We won't have crisscrossing of buses with this (redistricting) proposal," he said. "Children will be on their bus at the same time."

Kakavas said there would be shorter bus routes, less time spent commuting and that all public school classes would start at 8 a.m.

Kakavas also said that each child would be assigned a seat on the bus based on their age and grade level.

Kakavas described the graduation of students to a new seat each school year as a rite of passage.

"It works in Toms River," he said in support of the same proposed transportation to public school in Lakewood. "Its more efficient and safer. I believe it would (also be less costly)."

Kakavas said transportation contractors had expressed interest in the proposal.

Lakewood Superintendent of Schools Lydia Silva maintained that the redistricting proposal would also foster greater parental involvement in students' academic work, but did not disclose how the plan would accomplish that goal.

During the meeting's public forum, parent after parent of Lakewood's Spanish-speaking students spoke in support of the redistricting plan. However, parents, advocates and members of the Lakewood Educational Association (LEA), which represents teachers and affiliated personnel, asked the board to defer a vote on the plan pending its posting on the district Web site, which had not been done.

The redistricting plan was not the only document the board failed to post on its old or new Web site.

In 2009, the Lakewood Board of Education agreed to settle two OPRA complaints filed in 2007 by this editor/reporter of NJ News & Views. Under terms of the state-mediated settlement, which were publicly read into the meeting minutes, the Lakewood board agreed to post meeting agendas on the district Web site prior to the start of each meeting.

According to public discussion, the board did not post the February 13, 2012 meeting agenda on the new district Web site prior to the start of the meeting. Instead, board administrators posted that night's meeting agenda on the old Web site - where all other board meeting agendas and meeting minutes are posted and the public may not see them.

Under other terms of the state-mediated settlement of this editor/reporter's 2007 OPRA complaints, the board agreed to post meeting minutes within one month of approval. Instead, the board has hired a transcriptionist to prepare a verbatim transcript of public and executive board meetings at taxpayer expense, while delaying approval of edited meeting minutes for months.

District administrators defended the delay in approving and posting meeting minutes on the grounds there was no one available to do the work.

At its February 13 meeting, the board continued to promulgate public policy based on secrecy.

Despite Silva's disclosure that since her appointment in 2009, she had met in private, unadvertised meetings to solicit the support of some Lakewood parents, while intentionally excluding others, the board approved her requested K-8 redistricting plan.

Silva defended her action to meet with only Spanish-speaking parents.

"They make up 80 percent of the public schools," Silva said, contradicting Dasgupta's figure of 85 percent.

After the meeting, a reporter for NJ News & Views e-mailed Kakavas a request for comment.

The reporter asked Kakavas to respond to five questions based on his February 13 presentation.

The reporter asked Kakavas how much money he projected the district would save in public school transportation costs by redistricting for the 2012-13 school year, compared with the 2011-12 school year.
 
The reporter also asked Kakavas how much money he projected the district would spend in transportation costs of non-public school students during the 2012-13 school year, compared with transportation costs of non-public school students spent during the 2011-12 school year.

According to media reports, there are approximately 20,000-25,000 boys and girls enrolled in Lakewood non-public schools, compared with approximately 5,000-5,500 boys and girls enrolled in Lakewood public schools.

The media has also reported that approximately three-quarters of Lakewood non-public school students receive non-remote transportation services, commonly referred to as courtesy busing.

The state does not reimburse school districts for the cost of courtesy busing.
 
The reporter asked Kakavas how the district could succeed in creating "neighborhood" schools if municipal public policy permits schools to open anywhere within the township.

Based on two recent media reports of school bus tie-ups following motor vehicle accidents, the reporter asked how Kakavas how he could guarantee that redistricted public school students would arrive at class at the same scheduled time of 8 a.m.

On February 12, a motor vehicle crash reportedly occurred on North Crest Place in Westgate, the township's largest residential development undergoing buildout. The collision reportedly tied up a line of school buses that could not navigate the development's narrow interior roads while vehicles involved in the accident blocked their way. Students were told to remain on school buses waiting to safely exit the development, delaying the arrival of students for class.

On February 14, The Lakewood Scoop reported that one school bus clipped another while picking up non-public school students at the intersection of Ridge and Negba. The collision also tied up a line of school buses waiting on side streets until police arrived to investigate the incident.

Non-public school students are transported to class at different start times and in greater numbers than public school students.
 
The reporter asked Kakavas if the Lakewood board would be paying the same insurance costs by transporting older public school students with younger ones on the same school bus, or if there would be an increase in the cost of district liability insurance.

"Thank you for your responses," the reporter said in the e-mail request for comment.

Kakavas had none to give the reporter.

At the February 16 meeting of the Lakewood Township Committee, residents also discussed board approval of the redistricting plan.

Noreen Gill, whose husband was a former member and past president of the Lakewood Board of Education, said the current board's redistricting plan should not be put into effect.

"The transition to high school (will be) devastating," Gill said.

Annette Kearney of Lakewood UNITE (United Neighbors Improving Today's Equality) agreed that students needed to improve their academic performance, but felt the board improperly took action to accomplish that goal.

"I'm appalled by (the district's 37 percent graduation rate)," she said. "I wish I could take (my kids) out of Lakewood (and enroll) them somewhere else."

Kearney praised the township's long tradition of graduating Lakewood High School students that went on to achieve prominence.

"We have great people that came out of Lakewood, doing great things," she said. "We have the resources to do better."

Kearney expressed her sense of shock and outrage after attending the February 13 board meeting, where members approved a redistricting plan that was not publicized before the meeting or discussed with all parents of public school students affected by it.

"I feel like we were railroaded," she said. "I'm like, you've gotta be kidding! You're going to make a decision based on dots on the map!"

During Kakavas' presentation, he showed members of the audience a map that indicated bus stops for public school children located throughout the township. Kakavas said the reason there appeared to be few dots on the map was because there were so many dots, they were superimposed over one another.

The map did not depict non-public school bus stops.

After the board's public meeting adjourned, a reporter for NJ News & Views asked Kakavas how many schools were open for class in Lakewood Industrial Park and how many bus routes were scheduled for pick-up and drop-off there.

Last year, the owners of numerous commercial service and product businesses located in the industrial park wrote to Yisroel (Steven) Reinman, Director of the Lakewood Industrial Commission, to state their opposition to the township's largest non-public school opening for class in a former warehouse there.

Reinman, a friend and neighbor of Committeeman Steven Langert, is also Executive Director of Economic Development.

According to business owners, schools would increase the cost of their liability in the park, while creating a hazardous environment for children bused to class on the same narrow streets as trucks traveling there.

Unlike schools, most commercial businesses do not require school district services and are not tax-exempt.

Kakavas declined comment.

Kearney said the board's approval of a public school redistricting plan was done for 80 percent of public school parents.

"Well, I'm in the 20 percent," she said.

By failing to provide adequate notice to all Lakewood parents before approving the redistricting plan, board members may be required to defend their actions in a court of law - at taxpayer expense.

"I don't think the (board) attorney needs to be running the school board when we're paying the superintendent a 6-figure salary," Kearney said.

Board members may not be receiving the full value of their investment in Inzelbuch's professional services either.

Prior to the board's vote to approve the redistricting plan, Inzelbuch did not advise members of a possible legal challenge to their action based on Silva's disclosure that she met with some parents of public school students in order to enlist their support of her redistricting plan, while not meeting with others to discuss it.

Board member Yisrael Friedman defended Silva's actions.

"Our superintendent's trying to change the district," he said. "We're slowing her down."

The cost of redistricting Lakewood public schools may not benefit taxpayers in the long run or the short run.

According to Kakavas, reconfiguring public school bus routes will require "a massive amount of work."

Silva said the district would also have to retrofit school bathrooms.

She did not discuss how the board would afford the additional cost of expanding school libraries to accommodate both younger and older students' educational needs.

"Why is there such urgency in making this happen tonight?" board Vice President Tracey Tift asked before the vote.

Board President Meir Grunhut said the state was willing to help, but did not disclose how much funding the district would receive from the Department of Education (DOE).

"Time is of the essence," Grunhut said.

The Lakewood Township Committee will not be standing in the board's way, according to Mayor Menashe Miller.

"There's very little (we can do)," Miller said on February 16.

He's wrong.

By rezoning the township to permit schools only in residential areas where children they enroll can walk safely to class, the township committee can realize the board's vision of neighborhood schools.

By rezoning the industrial park to prohibit any other schools from opening there, the township can continue to realize a stream of revenue from collection of property taxes paid by companies that will continue to do business there.

Non-public schools are also businesses. Their directors are not in business to lose money.

As long as political influence continues to be the motivating force behind public policy promulgated by municipal and school government, that is unlikely to happen.

One student indicated that the writing was on the wall.

During the February 13 meeting of the Lakewood Board of Education, former Lakewood High School Senior Class President Assim Johnson informed members that he had recently notified administrators of a violation of the school's No Smoking policy after observing someone "lighting up" during lunch.

Assim said administrators did not ask him to discuss the problem with them.

"Its just business as usual," he told the board.