BREAKING – FIRST REPORT: Lakewood School District will be closed tomorrow due to no certified budget [UPDATED]

The Lakewood School District will be shut tomorrow, Monday, due to the budget not being certified – as the District’s Business Administrator and State Monitor will not sign the required certification, TLS has learned.

“A travesty,” General Counsel Michael Inzelbuch stated. “Despite the herculean efforts of State Senator Singer, Superintendent, State Monitor, Board of Education, Township Committee, and Glenn Forney of the Department – look what has happened. Apologies are owed to the parents, staff, and all Lakewood residents. It ain’t over yet.”

In an internal email obtained by TLS, Ms. Laura Winters stated, “After consultation with the State Monitor, Board President and General Counsel the District will be closed tomorrow, July 1, 2019, in lieu of the fact, that the District does not have a certified budget.”

This includes public schools, as well as schools such as SCHI and the Center.

Students will be notified via the District’s Emergency Alert System.

Information will be shared with staff, as it is received.

DEVELOPING.

UPDATE: Between 9:30 PM-10:30 PM this evening, parents and staff members can call (732) 994-2635 pin 5553131 to hear District officials address their concerns.

Questions can be sent to: [email protected]

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36 COMMENTS

  1. This is nuts. Why cant they, at least, function partially, with the money they do have ? Does this also mean that no Public school teachers are hired, as of now, for next year ? Does this sound like a functional Township to you ?

  2. I don’t get it Schi and center are having day camp tomorrow which is not part of the board of Ed budget so why would they close?

  3. I didn’t vote for Democrats Governor and I am warning you not like any Democrats party. They became extremely dangerous…you should vote for Trump 2020

  4. To nebach.

    1. What does this have to do with the Township , it’s the Board of Ed who gas t h.g our own budget.

    2. The BOE is required to spend over 50 million dollars just for non public busing and special ed tuition to a special ed school for what is mostly a pol of 35000 non public students . The state formula l.j a only recognizes a pub license school enrollment of 5,000 students , so there is a huge shortfall that grows every year . How do you expect them to stay open if they are short 30 million dollars ?

    • That is true to an extent, but the Township also allowed and approved the overly dense residential building which costs the school district money. They also approved changes from commercial zoning to residential which also costs the school district a lot of money, and on top of that, approved numerous PILOT tax abatement’s which further starve the school district of funds. The BOE has no say in any of these issues, but they are the ones left to deal with the mess it causes.

    • The Township clearly did not have the funds to pay the extra money that it costs to provide their won busing, which is why they cut the jobs, they never should have attempted it, ti was misguided and an expensive mistake

  5. To Just Wondering: the extended school year (ESY) is actually an official government funded 6 week summer program that is mandated on their IEPs. There are public schools that also have ESY too. It’s not a “day camp.” Students are still required to receive their mandated related services.

  6. Time for more lawsuits against the NJ Dept of Education because many children are not receiving their federally mandated extended school year programs. The Federal gov’t will now have to initiate an investigation into the State’s neglectful treatment of these students. This cannot be good for the officials running the show because the State will lose a lot more than 30 million dollars in the amount of federal funds they will be forced to return to Washington. This is becoming a bigger mess every day..

  7. @justwondering
    Tomorrow starts ESY extended summer year which is mandated in a child IEP and the funding for it is from the board of education.

  8. I think we should do a Charidy campaign. 30 mil ?! No big deal! We all reach out to Belz,Viznitz,Ger, Satmer , Toldos Aron and Both sides Peleg and Degel as well as those learning in Sorotzkin and Yissochor Bohelecho
    The all diped in to Lakewood
    I’m sure they will respond in kind!

  9. 1. An audit should be conducted on all students attending local public funded school to verify that they are actually living in Lakewood. Many people have observed (myself included) that there are many students who are driven to bus stops in Lakewood after they have relocated to neighboring towns. Lakewood Public schools are favored among English language challenged children.
    I have personally spoken to individuals who are doing so for that reason.
    2. For the time being CANCEL all services, a complete shutdown is in order. All property tax earmarked for education collected in this quarter should be set aside with the possibility of being returned to the taxpayers. I guarantee that the majority of taxpayers in town will be more than happy go forgo whatever services they receive for their money and pay for the extra services out of pocket instead. Let the State eat their own mess that they are creating by their formula which doesn’t account for 35,000 plus children that go to private school here in town, that are technically eligible to attend public school at a much (billions of dollars more) greater cost to the state. That leads to the next point..
    3. A community effort should be undertaken by the mosdos and askanim to register every child in Lakewood from Primary through High School into the public education system for this coming year. If the state doesn’t blink right away let the school year start with all registered students attending (at least for the start.) Let the state see that they will be shooting themselves in the foot by mistreatment our community. We all have to fight this together.

    • Go ahead. Then when you take them out of school, you will be charged in violation of the compulsory eduction law.

      The only reason nonpublic school attendance is allowed is because of the First Amendment and Pierce v. Soc. of Sisters (1925). Otherwise the state would force your children to attend the public schools. The teachers, DOE and general population want your kids to get a public education.

      Public education is not a welfare program or transfer payment, but is meant to ensure that certain values are passed through the generations.

      So who exactly are you trying to bluff? So go ahead, waive your right to a religious education. It would not cost the state a cent as the appropriation would simply be redivided.

    • That is just laughable. I assure you, NO ONE is sneaking their kids past officials to attend Lakewood Public Schools. Lakewood is surrounded by towns with extremely highly rated school districts while Lakewood PSs are notoriously at the bottom of the barrel, partly because they’ve been starved to death by the private schools eating up funding. But that’s the plan, right? And you do realize, your “community effort” to register every private school child for public school will result in your child getting a valuable secular and well-rounded education and not just religious studies, you do realize that, right? And you’re okay with that, right?

  10. its simple bussing is problem cut the cost in half put all the schools on public buses students get on and off at pick up points you then dont need the buses they use public transportation now so why cant they modify there routes and make it work

  11. @Moshe – you’re 100% right. It’s not the Twsp, it’s the BOE. I stand corrected and I do apologize.
    Either way, this is a crazy situation. AMD I feel so, SO bad for the parents of those heilegeh neshamos who rely on Schi and The Center to take care of their kids. What are they gonna do now.
    H-shem Yeracheim.

    • It is definitely not the BOE. The BOE has relatively little discretion in how the funds are used, and very little is used for non-mandatory services. the first culprit is the state with its non-equitable formula, the second culprit is the Township Committee with it’s zoning changes and tax abatement’s that have exasperated the situation.

  12. If you dig deeper into this problem you will see that it all starts from the uncontrolled development in town. The more homes that are built equals the more services that the BOE is mandated to provide. Especially when the town allows developers to build housing in areas that are designated for industry that is set up to help support the tax base. We are chasing out low cost ratables and replacing them with high cost services users. No one in the township will ever take any responsibility, instead they will keep blaming the state and county for all of the issues they created.

  13. They don’t know when the schools are opening as of right now there is no funding for anything and they don’t know when there will be funding the schools are closed as of right now

  14. Who in their right mind would bus their kids in from out of town to attend school in a failing school system? What possible incentive do they have?

    The biggest concern of the BOE was bussing not education. Why is anyone surprised?

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