Lawrence, NY – In a school district where residents were still voting 45 minutes after polls closed, unofficial results showed the Lawrence school district budget passed and the Board of Education will remain dominated by Orthodox Jewish members with children in private schools.
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Official Lawrence results were not available Wednesday morning, and district clerk Mohinder Bharaj said she would not disclose numbers until after another tally. “I want to give the proper number just to be 100 percent,” she said, adding that she had counted ballots until 2:30 a.m.
Unofficially, she said, the budget proposal passed and candidates Uri Kaufman and Abel Feldhamer won board seats. There has been controversy over the makeup of the board, with a majority comprised of Orthodox Jewish parents of children who attend private schools. Some parents of children in Lawrence public schools say the board’s agenda is to downsize the district.
That controversy, along with the many write-in ballots for public school parent John Kinder, is why Bharaj said she opted to do a recount before revealing official numbers.
“The paranoia in me wants to me wants to make sure everything is correct,” she said.
Tuesday’s election also brought a higher number of voters than in the past, Bharaj said. Last year, the budget passed 2,683 to 494.
On Tuesday afternoon, public school parent Steve Jackson saw hope in the high turnout he noticed at No. 2 School. “This is the most I’ve seen since the presidential election,” he said.
Hopefully the anti semites won’t win
These guys have no business sitting on the school board if they believe the schools are not good enough for their yinglach…the can go to talmud torah after school if they want yiddeshe instruction or else resign from the school board.
It isn’t a Public School board, but rather a school board. That means every child, whether public or private, is entitled to have representation. If the majority of the votes decide to place the schooling system in their hands, then it is just following the American way.
I am not suggesting to bring down the quality of the public schools, but to run it efficiently. Which includes being more fiscally responsible.
A healthy public school system, with co-curricular classes and activities and an after school program, creates an educated and safe community for EVERYONE to live in. Compare the crime rate in areas with low school taxes and poor public schools to the crime rate in areas with well funded public schools!
I would never send my children to a public school – they are mixed and they have a secular agenda – but it is critical that we fund public schools properly so that others can also receive a good education and STAY OFF THE STREETS.
I hope and pray that these gentlemen understand that and don’t have a negative agenda – for all our sakes.
Its not as simple as that. Orthodox parents, me included, pay the same taxes as parents who send their kids to public schools. As such, Orthodox parents have the same right to have representation on the school board as do public school parents. Otherwise, it is taxation without representation, and that was one of the chief causes of the Revolutionary War.
In addition, the chief reason why Orthodox parents run for the Lawrence School Board positions is that before the Orthodox people started to run, the Board, then dominated by public school parents, refused to give private schools certain benefits, such as special ed and busing, believing that these should be paid for by the parents. In other words, the Board gladly took Orthodox parents’ money but would not give them the same services the public school students get.
People have short memories. As recently as 2005, the Lawrence School Board was dominated by public school parents, and it was one of the most corrupt boards in the entire state. Albany publicly stated that there were little to no safeguards on the spending of the board and that the potential of corruption was great.
People need to realize that neighborhoods change with time. If public school attendance is down compared to past years, it makes no sense to keep the buildings open. They become money wasters. It seems that some people are so anti-Semitic and/or so anti-Orthodox that they’d rather pay higher taxes to keep mostly empty schools open and retain teachers who have five students in a class, than to have a sane economic policy.
In my opinion, a school board is there to determine how the the taxpayers’ money should be spent. Therefore, any taxpayer should be equally entitled to sit on the board, regardless of where their own children attend school.
If the word “fair” must be brought into this, and if people insist on having a board that truly represents specific school interests, then I would say a “fair” school board would consist of public and non-public school parents in equal proportion to the public/non-public school populations the board serves. So, if the district is 50% public school kids and 50% non-public school kids, “fair” would be to have a board that is 50/50. But in reality, “fair” is putting in whoever gets the most votes, as happened here.
I do believe, however, that the board should try to distribute the funds in an equitable manner, and in the interests of all students in the district.
Who are you to judge if they belong there or nowt, These people are paying 18K a year for public school tax part of their real estate tax , and there are not enough kids to fill up one school from there own district so theu bus in kids from other areas to fill up the school , its about time that local people are responsiable for there own budget and thats the reason they voted them on to the board , they just did that in monsey partly ,
The reason the frum community got involved went back a few years when the incumbent school board voted to STOP bussing for Yeshiva kindergartens. since the locals pay unbelivably high taxes to support the school system, and since the ONLY benefits they get are texbooks and bussing, they were very angry.
Taxes kept going up and up and yet the school population was shrinking so much they voted to close one school building for lack of children.
There was a general consensus that the previous boards were mishandling funds. After several outside audits, it was discovered that large sums of money were “lost”. It was at that point that the frum community decided to get involved. Understand, the frum community is the primary tax base to cover the cost of public schools without many benefits.(and that is okay, since it is our choice to send out children to private schools)
HOWEVER, as members of the community, and as primary fundraisers for the school taxes, we decided to take a more active roll in managing the finances of the district.
We have not siphoned money off to the private schools, we have not cut programs, we have not fired teachers, we have simply made the administration of the schools accountable for their spending.
Congratulations Abel !!!
I think that the naysayers for the right of the Orthodox community to sit on the board should go back to 1776 and the American revolution. One of the main catalysts that started the Revolution was taxation without representation. If a member of a community is taxed they have the right given by our American Constitution to elect a representative. The fact that Lawrence has such a large Orthodox community who send their kids to private schoold can’t be used to take this right away from them.
In Teaneck we are starting to get the message. This year we voted down the budget, which is 6th highest in New Jersey, with $18,000 spent per year per public school kid. Most of the votes against came from the frum areas. Finally this year a frum man won a seat on the board. The schools here are run horribly with many teachers making 100K or more a year, including gym teachers.
This is always a tricky issue. You have the parents of the children who attend these schools wanting to represent the needs of public school kids. The private school parents go and represent the tax payers who have to pay for it. It is a double-edged sword as BOTH are equally important.
So long as the money is being spent wisely (although at $13,000/year I doubt that it is). and the needs of all the children are being met, both sides should be satisfied. There will of course be some give and take, but the anger with which people talk about it is counterproductive.
If frum yidden got on the board to get more money for yeshivos by sacrificing the quality of education in the public system, they should be ashamed of themselves and run out on a rail. If the public school parents think they can get away with ignoring 50% of the community and keeping all the money for their own kids, they should be just as ashamed of themselves. Proper balance is the key. The CHILDREN… both in public and private schools… should be the priority. It is up to the school board to ensure that children are getting a worthwhile education, and ensuring that it is adequately funded (not over or under funded).
You know why we need a frum board in District 15? I’ll tell you:
In District 15-
3,000 Kids go to public schools
4,000 Kids go to private schools
Teachers in District 15 make $100,000 + Benefits
Enrollment is dwindling, yet the opposition wants to keep pumping money into schools with no kids.
Now tell me, with these numbers, you really think that a non frum board is a good idea? Their main goals are to take away any funding going towards Yeshivas (like bussing) and apply to their own public school kids- even though the frum community makes up about 75% of the budget.
These school board members should disclose how much they pay for their kids in yeshivot. They should be willing to allow at least at much per student in the public schools since the latter have to assume costs for a wide range of mandated special ed and other programs which yeshivot are not required to offer.
I think its a fascinating experiment in practical democracy. Dont forget, the school board is quite heavily constrained by state law and state/federal court decisions as well as union contracts etc. They’re actually in a pretty unenviable position — an expectation by the frum community that they’ll restrain and rationalize spending, maybe even find a creative way to breach the church/state wall while under intense scrutiny from the secular community, elected officials and the courts.
#30 is so silly that it’s not worthy of a response, although I’m sure someone here will say something.
The fact is the Lawrence School Board has a budget of roughly 100 MILLION dollars – for 3000 students. You do the math. Sure, if you figure in the 4000 yeshiva kids it makes a little more sense, but honestly, how much of that money is really finding its way to helping the majority of the district’s children?
The board argues, perhaps rightfully so, that state and federal mandates require money to be spent in the public schools.
So let’s think a little bit – what happens when the public school population drops to 2,000? The town should collect $50.000 per public school student? Is that an efficient use of taxpayer money?
Most of the so called opposition are fine people many of whom are Jewish and some that are not. They are all upper income professionals who are attempting to hold on to a FIVE TOWNS
I assume 30 is being intentionally sarcastic by making an absurd argument to show just how disingenuous these public school parents are.
“They should be willing to allow at least at much per student in the public schools”
Good job – by articulating the absurdity of the argument you’ve made the point.
The reality is that what is happening in Lawrence is a kiddush Hashem. A few years ago, they took over a system that was spending around $25k per public school student and getting mediocre academic performance. The teachers’ union controlled the district and teachers were getting paid $100k on average plus excellent benefits. The budget was going up 4-5% every year and any child outside of the public school had to fight for the basic services that they were entitled to.
Since the change of control on the board, the budget has decreased almost every year (this is unheard of in any school district), test scores in the public school have gone up and yeshiva kids have been receiving their rightful services without having to put up a fight. It’s true that many of the public school parents will always be uncomfortable with orthodox jews on the board and the teachers’ union will always mobilize people to oppose the orthodox jewish candidates (so that they can increase the budget and their salaries), but they cannot deny all of these accomplishments that would never have happened without the orthodox board members.
You guys complain about the taxes. Look a the property space that each of your private schools and temples sit on that you don’t pay a penny in taxes. So you guys need to shut the hell up or get out if you have a problem paying taxes.
I am not a teacher, but why is everyone upset that veteran teachers can make in the area of 100,00 dollars? Let’s start scrutinizing your salaries and see if you’re worth it.
As a public school parent, my problem is not who is on the board, but what is being done to the children. Programs are being cut, while 17 million sits in the bank. The yeshiva children were entitled to the gifted programs for years but never told by the board which was orthodox. You don’t close the largest newest building to shovel kids into the smallest building. The OCR has accepted the case, and has already found 4 civil rights violations. The sad thing is most public school parents have asked for reading and writing programs for at risk kids. Also, school taxes as per the board on average are 6,000, Atlantic Beach pays the highest at 15,000.
The interest of the private school parents has no place in the public school system in this country. The school board is a part of the public education system and should not be a tool used by orthodox jews to get what they want for their children. I hope that eventually a law will be passed that will not allow parents that send their children to private schools to represent the public school system of a community. This is not in the best interest of our community and is a crime. I have no respect for the orthodox community because they have no respect for America.
Thank you “4th generation 5towner” – you have hit the nail on the head. Common RESPECT! The same thing is happening in East Ramapo in upstate New York – right next to Monsey – and it is the saddest thing I have ever seen. Unlike Lawrence, our school budget in the lowest in Rockland County with the HIGHEST enrollment and the orthodox community still felt it necessary to get on our school board. They compromise 6 out of 9 and will probably hold all 9 seats as of next year for a PUBLIC school system. This makes no sense. Their community was always provided with adequate busing and special ed needs for all of their children because we shared a community with them and yes, they also paid taxes. I recall as a child, if we had Friday early dismissal for snow , we had to wait until 3pm (instead of 1pm like other schools in the county) because the orthodox had to be bussed home first to observe the Sabbath. This was when only public school parents occupied the board . We have ALWAYS respected their community and now they are not showing us the same respect. In fact, they are trying to hire the CROOK from Lawrence – D’Agostino at twice the cost – how does this help our CHILDREN??