LETTER: BOE President to NJ Dept of Education: I’m Deeply Concerned for the Future of the Children of Lakewood; Something Must be Done NOW

letter doeDays after an overwhelming “NO” vote of the $6,200,000 school district referendum, the newly-elected Board of Education President penned a letter to the State’s Department of Education Commissioner David Hespe.

In the letter obtained by TLS, Barry Iann in detail describes the crisis state the district finds itself in, and urges the State to take immediate action before the situation deteriorates.

Click here to view the full letter.

[TLS]

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13 COMMENTS

  1. It’s time to hold our elected officials’ in Trenton feet to the fire. We send them back year after year, and what have they done for us and for the education of our kids? Why haven’t we heard from Singer, Kean and Rible about what they will about this?

  2. I found it interesting when I googled mike azzarra, one of the results I got was from the app which stated that his last position was in Camden. He was brought in to fix a $10 million budget gap. When he left several years later they were left with a $75 million budget gap.

  3. I have one question
    If there are 11,000 children taking courtesy busing ,and the cost is about $10,000,000,that makes it $909 a child per year .Divide that by the amount of school days (180) =$5.05 per day per child .Divide that by 2 (morning and afternoon run)=$2.52.Times that by the average amount of kids on a bus (45)=$113.62 per run. That is 40% more or about $47 more than the average $65 a run bid on most runs in most towns .WHO IS TAKING ALL THIS EXTRA MONEY ??? THAT IS ABOUT $4,400,000 a year -half the deficit

  4. Azara is very foolish. He has admitted teh REVENUE problem, he has negotiated a deal and then reneged. If this were a private business, he would be sued up to wazoo. I agree with the posters above. It is time to hold our official’s feet to the fire. We need to get a real local representative in Trenton then they will listen. We can do it. At least get someone in office at the county level then we will have more say. Time to take the gloves off. As is clearly outlined, Lakewood is shortchanged over taxed and fed up. Time to fight for our rights for real.

  5. I personally know Mike and some of the other state monitors. They are just doing their job which their bosses are demanding on them. Could have been a little more tactful? – yes. They are put into losing propositions..The state should do what their doing in camden. Shut down the public schools and open fully special funded charter schools known as Renaissance Schools were they can actually build their own buildings.. Then the children of Lakewood will have a true chance of better education in New modern facilities. Lakewood is no different than Camden Trenton Atlantic City. Why are there no charter schools.

    Ofcourse the deficit is going to rise and there is a lack of funds, COMPOUNDED THAT THIS IS GOING ON FOR YEARS and the town is also growing. Its the formula that is bankrupting this school district.

    Did you see the numbers? New students Hispanic 80%. I guess the real reason for the deficit is not the courtesy busing.

  6. I suggest we do a bus and shuttle system with all the schools combined. We moved recently from Eretz Yisroel and that system worked great over there – at least much better than the American system.

    This system worked well for the R’ Kanarek schools’ event 2 weeks ago.

    We need a bus company willing to invest in this privately instead of trying to cut thru red tape.

  7. To number 4, if “Mikes” job was to undermine the Lakewood residents and provide cover for the State for underfunding Lakewood, then he is no friend of the residents of Lakewood.

    That is akin to a hitman excusing his deeds by saying he was “just doing his job”

  8. With all due respect, enrolling your children into the public school system is just an idle threat. Your beliefs require boys and girls be segregated. As well as separation from the non-orthodox children. There will be no time for religious studies at school as it is not permitted in public schools. Yup, it sounds like a good threat, and if all the orthodox children were to be enrolled in public schools, money would need to be found for more than just transportation. More physical teaching/learning space. More books, computers, media supplies, etc. Sports teams and extra curricular activities would be cancelled. Many elective classes would be cancelled also. While it may be a temporary slap in the face to the board of education, it would put an unnecessary tax increase on ALL homeowners residing in Lakewood. To that end, the education with the religious teachings required of the orthodox beliefs would be tossed aside also. Thinking about this, reality would have this idea as a lose – lose situation. If the courtesy busing is for safety reasons, why don[‘t you compromise, and allow both boys and girls to ride on the same bus.? This would cut down on the number of buses on the road, thus cutting expenses. Boys in the back of the bus, girls up front; or girls on left boys on the right. There are ways to make this work out, buy the orthodox parents might have to compromise just a little without giving up your religious freedoms.

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