Good evening Board President Mr. Leonard Thomas and members of the Lakewood Board of Education. My name is Meir Hertz, I am a 40-year resident of Lakewood, currently residing on Miller Road.  I come to you this evening as an educator, who heads for the past 19 years a local yeshiva, Tashbar of Lakewood; as grandfather of 20 children and grandchildren in 5 local parochial schools; as chairman of the Igud’s Grants/BOE Affairs Committee, and last but not least, as a local taxpayer and concerned citizen. There are 3 issues pending before you which I respectfully would like to address. Allow me to speak to you from the heart.

First, we learned this past Friday, May 28th, that 157 nonpublic school children were dropped from receiving PT and OT services, under the guise of “centralization”. A total of 300 children in 2008-2009 instead of 457 the prior year, before “centralization”.  Nor was there any consultation on this move, certainly not at any public forum.  I respectfully ask that this decision be reversed.  At the very least, let’s have a genuine, open and public discussion specifically on this issue. Let’s ask the parents. Let’s ask the school principals and administrators.

Second, we also were told this past Friday by the Board Attorney that the NJ DOE rescinded its previous SES/Choice Waiver, approving an additional $1.2 Million in Title 1 funding to our schools. Supposedly, that money is now lost to Lakewood’s nonpublic schools. Can we please get confirmation of that on an official level?  Our sources at the NJ DOE said they know nothing about such a decision. Please get back to me on that.

Last but not least, for a long, long time our nonpublic schools have been asking for choice in the selection of special services providers for students enrolled in our schools.  We believe such choice is essential for
ensuring proper services for our children. We believe our principals and school administrators know best how to meet the special needs of the children entrusted to us.  However, through one ruse or another, but always for the same reason, we could not get that choice. Someone else was always making these decisions for us.  Why?  Why were we forced to work only with Catapult?  It was Catapult for IDEA. Catapult for Title 1. Catapult for Ch 192. Catapult for Nursing. And Catapult for Ch. 193.  This Cat had more than 100 lives. For many, many years, through more than a hundred contracts with the Lakewood District – – the Cat, and only the Cat got every bid award. Never mind that we received persistent reports that the services were below par, that the costs were exorbitant, that the “overhead” was inflated, that services started late in the year, and ended early, that time records were falsified. Yes we received many reports that records were falsified. Also, many reports that fraudulent bills were submitted to the State, and reports that two sets of books were kept, one actual set of books was used for paying special ed teachers, while another, fraudulent set of books was used for the purpose of billing the State. Reports that IEPs were seriously deficient, that the Cat pays for the Board attorney’s second so called “full time” position in a no show job paying $122,000.00 as “NonPublic Special Ed Consultant” by waiving its administrative fees for Ch 192/193. Never mind that the District pays for an attorney (David Rubin, Esq.) to defend the Cat against a claim for return of Three Million ($3,000,000) Dollars to the State of new Jersey. Never mind all that and many more such shady practices; the Cat, and only the Cat always gets the contracts.

But now the Cat is out of the bag.  Everyone realizes that it is not despite such shameful tactics that the Cat was kept in Lakewood.  It is BECAUSE of such shenanigans that the Cat stayed in Lakewood— to the exclusion of everyone else. And I must tell you that my deep concern for the nonpublic school children is mirrored by a parallel concern for public school children. We learned to our dismay that the $11 Million in Title 1 funds which were diverted in the years 1998 to 2006 from the nonpublic school children did NOT end up helping the public school children. That money went into the General Fund.  Both public and nonpublic students with special needs are equally victimized.

And so I plead with you tonite, please put a stop to this abuse. It’s not simply loss of money we’re talking about.  It’s about robbing our most vulnerable children of their futures as full and productive members of
society.  In other words we are talking here about loss of many, many young lives, because funding for their special needs is stolen.

Thank you for listening.

Meir Hertz