In an effort to save their losing battle against the Lakewood School District’s ongoing school year, the Teachers Union has begun resorting to frivolous complaints and grievances, in an attempt to hamper the continued education of Lakewood’s student body, the vast majority of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds.
TLS has learned of several complaints recently made by the Union.
On Friday, September 11th, the day on which the funeral of Lakewood Police Officer Nick Shimonovitch was held, the Union threatened a “call to action” including a mass walkout of teachers, if school buses picked up students late due to traffic from the funeral. Upon learning of the plan, Superintendent Winters ordered the Building Principal to report to her any staff members who followed the Union’s instructions, thereby endangering children by leaving them unattended. Subsequently, no staff members were reported to have left before the children were picked up (the school buses came about 10 minutes late, according to several reports).
Complaints were also made over several staff members attending the funeral of Ptl. Shimonivitch, but none of those in attendance have tested positive for Covid-19.
The Lakewood School District has reported to the Ocean County Health Department several cases of Covid-19 being present in students and staff members, but none are believed to be able to cause wider transmission.
One such case involved a staff member who had no contact with students and became infected at an event unrelated to school functions. The employee has been instructed to work from home for two weeks, in accordance with the Lakewood School District’s reopening plan and Governor Murphy’s orders.
A second employee who also did not have contact with students and works at an off-site building tested positive and is believed to have caught it from a family member. The employee has been ordered to work remotely as a precautionary measure, despite not being in close proximity to Lakewood students.
A Lakewood school staffers spouse tested positive for Covid-19 – the employee did not test positive – but the staff member was ordered to work from home as a precautionary measure.
A new Lakewood student is also said to have tested positive for coronavirus. The student is believed to have been in close contact with only two other students in a self-contained setting. To be safe, the entire class and staff members who interact with the class were immediately switched to remote learning.
On Friday morning, Superintendent Laura Winters and General Counsel Michael Inzelbuch had an extensive conversation with the Ocean County Health Department regarding the above instances, and agreed to continue working collaboratively to ensure safe instruction for students, teachers, and school staff alike.
This is one of the reasons why public sector unions should be banned, another is that they fund the democrats campaigns who then once elected are supposed to negotiate on behalf of the taxpayer, but instead are beholden to the unions they’re negotiating with, so no one sitting at the table is actually there on half of the taxpayers. Vote all democrats out of office.
I hope you all will be happy when the legislature removes the cap on tax increases for districts that owe substantial sums. Right now, you owe a full year of property taxes and within two years, possibly two years of taxes. So when your taxes triple, then good riddance. Why should I continue my litigation? Cry to the present leadership.
Toms River and Brick foolishly litigated their funding making several mistakes and it was dismissed. I know how they can win, if they can win at all, and surely it would have gone to the NJ Supreme Court had they understood NJ case law, although I am not sure we would have won in the end had I litigated for them. Had I taught in those districts, not only would I have not been demoted, but I would have been an administrator by now and likely would indeed have litigated their funding case for them as I did for Lakewood. I am sure their BOE would have been grateful and not opposed me.
Those districts did not open at full capacity like Lakewood. The people of Lakewood have made their choice. Why should I care if the funding is fixed? Let your BOE fix it.
Mr Lang the people of Lakewood appreciate all you’re doing and thank you