At tonight’s Township Council meeting, the Lakewood Board of Education and the Lakewood Township Municipal Government entered into a Shared Services Agreement to provide transportation to students for the 2019-2020 school year. This comes on the heels of the news that the Lakewood Student Transportation Authority will become defunct due to a lack of funding.
According to the agreement, all monies set aside by the Board of Education for transportation will be given to Lakewood Township which will manage the transportation responsibilities for Lakewood students.
An oversight committee will be created, consisting of seven members, three to be chosen by the Board of Education, three chosen by Lakewood Township and one to be chosen by the State Monitor.
The Board of Education and Lakewood Township Council will meet on a quarterly basis to review the provision of transportation to Lakewood children in an effort to maximize efficiency and effectiveness.
Avi Schnall of Agudas Yisroel told TLS that much effort went into getting to this agreement. “Mayor Ray Coles, Committeeman Meir Lichtenstein and Senator Bob Singer deserve tremendous praise for their endless dedication to the community of Lakewood to ensure that public and non-public school students will have a proper and safe way of getting to school.”
SO let me understand this , the Rich Lakewood Township just assumed another 3 million in debt ? What does that eve mean . And at the end of the day what does this mean for the LSTA and all the credit cards they charged in June for 2019 bussing ?
What will happen to the $600 the LSTA took from me for bussing for my 4 kids for the 2019-2020 school year, as we live close (but not really walking distance because of MAJOR streets) to their schools
How could lsta have debt?! They got all the aid in Lu and claimed they negotiated better deals for the runs!
Basically, if I understand correctly, the lsta will rebrand under the township, the salaries for the lsta will be now paid by the township, so the money will be washed a bit cleaner. Just another bandaid to a big problem. Yes bandaids are necessary.
So let me guess, now any surplus that the Township has at the end of the year especially the 1 at DPW which always is a big one and is supposed to be use to get stuff for “dpw” is going to end up here too? Every year is the same thing, until 1 day we end up bankrupt like Camden and the county takes over? Then what?
Who is responsible for LSTA cost overruns in the future? They averaged $1 million annually during the past three years. Assuming they use the existing contracts, costs will again exceed revenue.
I assume that the lsta deficit will nis get picked up by the township budget .our taxes
In other words, lets get this under the Townships umbrella now, so future funding problems are directly the taxpayers problem and funds can be redirected from other departments to pay for bussing. Ok, got it!