Last night the Lakewood Board of Education approved 3 vendors (Tree of Knowledge, Learn it, Catapult) for the Title 1 program. This is a momentous time for the Lakewood non public school children. Schools will now have the ability to choose a vendor based on what would be best for their children. Also approved last night was the multi vendors for IDEA services. This will mean that Education Excellence, LLC (affiliated with Tiny Tots) will now administer the STARS program and Catapult will continue to administer the self contained classes. Also Nursing was split between Catapult and Bayada nurses. Upon the recommendations of the board professionals the board also voted to reissue the 192 program RFP so that there will be an ability to have multi vendors for this program.
We would like to thank the following board members for standing up to the pressures over the past few weeks and for doing what is right for our children last night;
Carl Fink
Meir Grunhut
Chesky Seitler
Yoni Silver
Lenny Thomas
Yitzchok Zlatkin
We applaud you and wish you success on all you future endeavors.
Too early to celebrate. No multivendors for IDEA: single source for Preschool self-contained, single source for K-8 self-contained. Single source (Catapult) for 193. Incidentally, there are terrible problems with the 193 E&D (Evaluations and Determinations-Child Study Team services). The IEPs are skewed to services provided by Catapult. There is a built-in self-serving conflict of interest. Why would Catapult EVER recommend behavioral services, say, for children with spectrum disorders, when such a recommendation would directly reduce funding for the self-contained classes THEY administer. This is a Pyrrhhic victory. In NYC Yeled v’Veyalda offers superior service for autistic childrn. In Lakewood, because Catapult is not profiting, there are no such services, for public OR nonpublic children. So the score right now is a tie: Single source =2 (IDEA and 193) to multivendor = 2 (Title 1 and Nursing), with 192 yet to be determined. In my book a tie is NOT a victory.
The reason it is a victory is because last year the score was lost 4-0. This year it is 2-2. That is a victory by all assessments. Just because you did not get everything that does not mitigate the accomplishments achieved so far?
Why are you taking away from the success that was accomplished. One year at a time, it will happen. Trust these guys. They are good!
Catapult face reality you are not alone now! stop trying to hold onto everything! competition is good for our town! way to go BOE!!
From # 1 to # 2.
You logic is ObamaSpeak which you rejected in Lakewood. Obama says if last year’s tax increase was 10% and this year’s increase is 8% you are winning. Would you buy that logic for Lakewood. Absolutely not. LAC should not buy it here either! Even one child lost due to monopoly, lack of choice, and price gouging is unacceptable. It’s really that simple.
If last year you lost a million dollars and this year you lose 500,000, is that an accomplishment? Or is that Obamaspeak?
what does this mean for STARS, any changes to the program?
I think this is just a political power struggle. I don’t think it has any significance to the average regular joe citizen.
The Aibishter should bless you that you should never need special services for anyone in your family. It’s only then C”V that people find out the significance of this struggle. It has nothing to do with power, and everything to do with dinei nefushos.
Zei Gibencht,
Tree of Knowledge and Learned it are SES vendors.They never did Title 1 in a public or non public school. Again because of ignorance Catapult won again.
they did do Title 1 just not in NJ. get your facts straight. They are reputable and experienced in Title 1 in their home states as well as in at least 7 other states. Because of ignorance, people talk without verifying the facts
You do not know what your are talking about! Tree Of Knowledge specifcly has done Title 1 in many public and non public schools. try again, Catapult! Try to find problems in yourself first before knocking these other vendors!
learn it also did title 1 in 19 states and they service 35000 children a year. get your facts straight
Does anyone know what the 192 program RFP is?
The meeting was a disgrace. There were public school parents waiting for the meeting to start for hours while the board was meeting with the title 1 vendors. They should have done these meetings either before the public session or at least after the public comment. Disgraceful
I dont see how this is good news for STARS.
It is NOT good news for STARS. Poor children 🙁
Does anyone know how I can apply to the other two vendors for a job?
I’m so happy that I won’t have to work for Catapult anymore!
it is very good news , the children will actually get the services they need, and not get scammed.
Really… I always heard catapult does excelent work. My daughter works for them she says they do wonders for children.
So important notes:
1. Tree of Knoledge has been servicing frum children in non-public schools since 1999 in Ohio. It has provided title one and IDEA services. Tree of knowledge is committed to working with the schools to get the most amount of services and funds.
2. The staff of TOK looks forward to working with the lakewood schools, new Lakewood staff , Parents and most important the children. We are committed to providing as much services as possible.
3. ToK appreciates all of the committment of the Board of Education, Educators and Principal of the non-public schools as well as the parents in the Lakewood community who gave so much of their time to make this change a reality.
Good Shabbos
Nechama Salfer
How will this affect my child who gets services through multiple programs. Up until now everything was administered through Catapult. Will my child now have different teachers each day because different programs will be administered through different vendors? Can someone please explain.
Catapult DOES not do anything BUT they $ake money by being in charge of all the wonderful therapists in this town who do wonders for your kid, that is the FACTs
I grew up in Cleveland and TOK is an amazing company! They don’t have the attitude that Catapult has!
I understand that Catapult does not do anything but make money for administering services, and it is only the wonderful teachers and supervisors who actually help my child. I also understand that competition is a good thing. Although I don’t know anything about TOK or Learn It, I don’t understand how will splitting the services be better for my child?
Catapult offers excellent benefits to their teachers. Why do you think that Cata employees will run to work for you if you are not offering benefits? Just like they can get any other job without benefits, why should they run to work for you for the same price?
I have seen ToK in action in Cleveland and in Miami and their results are incredible. I think the Lakewood community would be hard pressed to find such a professional educational orginization as good as theirs.
Foolish people. Lakewood is not Cleveland. How will TOK build the infrastructure to service our schools (read: children) from scratch? If you have a tayna on Catapult, the way to correct it is not with nekama, which is the same as cutting off your nose in order to get even with your face.
Am trying to understand how this all works with the public school prek program that catapult runs. What happens to that part of the program?
How were these vendors acquired…through bidding or quotes? There must have been a way that they came to the conclusion of approving the (3) vendors….
Good luck, we hope lots of people get jobs to help Jewish Children