A Reader Writes: Changes at the Lakewood Board of Ed

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princeton-avenue-school-building-smallDear Editor,
We would like to inform the public about a recent occurrence on the Lakewood, NJ, Board of Ed.

Mr. Chet Galdo, the longtime president of the Board, suddenly resigned Friday morning. Most of us remember the last time this happened, back in December when Mr. Braude resigned. At that time it was the opinion of the BOE attorney that an ad must be placed asking for resumes for possible replacements. The ensuing nomination of Mr. Tift over Mr. Silver caused the Tzibbur to vote en-mass for Yoni in the past election.

This time however, at the behest of some Vaad members, the replacement was sworn in immediately, at the special meeting of the BOE on Monday morning. The replacement was Ada Gonzales- the candidate that lost in the last election. The candidate who lost because the kehillah felt she did not do enough to lower costs. This was done without any prior notification to some of the Board of education members, however we suspect some members did know about it since Ada was waiting ready to accept upon approval. The appointment of Gonzales is only until next elections.

The new president is Mr. Abe Ostreicher, who also came prepared with his acceptance speech, and the new VP is Mr. Tracey Tift, a board member since March 2009.

The LAC feels that making such an appointment without a proper discussion and advertising, opening the position for resumes and picking the most suitable candidate, seems like someone has an agenda here. We feel this fits in well with the process taken in picking the superintendent. While Mrs. Silva is a great candidate, the process seemed to suggest that an agenda was at play.
We would like to let the public know that the Vaad and some board members have been ignoring the LAC entirely and the interests of the kehillah at large. They are more concerned with who has the power over what is best for the oilam. If we do not stand up for what we need we will be paying for it with our wallets.

Next year there will be 4 open seats on the board of Ed: Tracey Tift, Ada Ginzales, Meir Neuman, And Akiva Gontar. At that point in time the kehilla will have their chance to speak for themselves

The LAC
Lakewood, NJ


20 COMMENTS

  1. The LAC is a worthless orginazation. The candidate you supported last time has proven to be useless. I am happy you have what to kvetch about.

  2. The LAC needs to grow up and learn how to work with established Askonim or they will not be taken seriously.

    Its a shame, because if they drop their g’avah and ‘always-know-what’s-best’ attitude, they may actually do some good for the Kehilla.

  3. LAC? Oh I saw they were together with those , etc looking for some “entitlements” at the developments, etc.

    Till the LAC or any other PARVE Org that will represent the strict interests of ALL the taxpayers, don’t take them seriously.

    The LAC wasn’t ready to stand up & be firm, as time goes we’ll get some of the costs reduced, etc means “don’t rely on us”.

  4. You cant expect one guy on a board of 9 to make real chnage. Mr MI if you thought that having one guy on would make a differance your wrong. we need to make a change in lakewood politics and i do not know of one guy on the LAC who has done anything for themselves.

  5. The LAC is at least exposing these things. Once everyone knows about whats going on things will happen. before they came around certain people had free reign, At least they are starting to feel the heat for their actions. Give credit at least for what they are doing right. True they are doing nothing and getting nothing done, they are in it for themselves like saving money etc but at least we can all benefit from their private intrests. what have we benfitted from the current establishment’s private intrests?

  6. To MI and those who are posting all this who are posting all this massages , you don’t realize one thing that the reason why you are spending your time writing all this post is because you are afraid of LAC and for a good reason , people trust them and people don’t trust you and you know it. In my neighborhood people are waiting for LAC article and developed a feeling that LAC is there for them.
    Now you keeep on recycling this services issue and this services that development got didn’t cost an extra penny because the trucks were already plowing most of the street and just had to stay for few more minutes , no extra staff was hired, no new trucks purchased.

  7. LAC, Are you surprised? We aren’t, you set yourselves up for this. As the famous saying goes “how can you expect to get there when you don’t know where you are going”?

    As Reb Noson Wachtfogel ZAL said,?? ????? ???? ?? ???? ???? but should we do when some don’t have time etc

  8. Lac you should know the 14 th area is behind you, its long coming to have a group of people who do something for the 85% of the tzibur who get nothing from the current politicians and askonim.
    Doesnt Gonzalez work for one of the members who benefits from mosdos who benifit from boe . no suprise one hand washes the otherl.
    I hope you win in april well be there for you.

  9. lets not forget that we have a lot of hakoras hatov to the vaad and askonim for many things they did , but when it comes to taxes the LAC seems the only one that is doing something,
    As a lady i went to the tax appeal in lakewood which was orgenized by the LAC and they helped me a lot and i got 60K off my assesment, you have my vote LAC.

  10. The LAC has no backing from any Rabbonim they scream out at taxes of course every one wants to hear that they appointed someone to the BD of ED who doesnt even know how to read an agenda. They approved township to get $ more garbadge trucks DO WE REALLY NEED IT AT THIS TIME , They scream at the cost of SCHI but one of their own members is MR SCHI. Mr Shmuckler was even honored by SCHI.Before you bash BD ED members why dont you come down to BD MEETING when the BD MEMBERS almost got killed by rioting crowd because Superintendint was not renewed , it is time we give them a little credit. they get no compinsation for their work just give them a break already , HASHEM YERACHEM

  11. to the disgruntled (or maybe relatives) BOE members you could write all the comments you want , however just wait until election time. As an aside anybody that is capable of doing a good job if he is on the BOE shoud get in touch with the LAC now.

  12. I see you didn’t post my message (for the first time) but at least you read it. I think I have a point, and I see a different agenda at play here.

  13. I am surprised that this letter was written during the Nine Days – a week when we are supposed to promote Ahavas Chinam – not Sinas Chinam.

  14. Not to be misunderstood, I meant an agenda from you and if you don’t post this correction, then please remove the previous comment (which wasn’t meant to be posted in the first place), you may however post my first comment which stated the irony of this post, and what you posted from Rabbi Brazil, what a shame that you refused to post it)

  15. To “someone who knows”. it seems like you know a lot. You sound a lot like [deleted]! I was wondering though how do you know that the LAc does not have rabbonim? You say you are someone who knows, so please explain how you know that? I have been by a rav when an LAC member came to ask him about a certain maaseh. The rav told him he will answer under the condition his name is never mentioned. The member told me afterwards that they each have their own rav and act according to what he says. If the ppublic feels they are wrong, they can vote against them. They dont care. Each one is just trying to do what his rav says is right and it is nobodys business who their rav is. That is between them and the ribbono shel oilam and not Mr. [deleted].

  16. The rav told him he will answer under the condition his name is never mentioned.

    If you can’t take the heat don’t stand in the kitchen.

    If you are giving a “psak” on a KLAL issue, then the klal is entitled too know who you are.Otherwise don’t give it.

  17. I don’t understand why this religious community is so concerned about who is on the Board of Education. After all, most of the children in this community do not attend the public schools. I always thought that the Board of Ed’s main concern was suppose to be the Public School System. It seems that in Lakewood the public school system is just a front for the many private schools so that they can receive a tremendous amount of money from the state – taking it away from the public schools. The public school is capable of educating all the children of Lakewood but if a parent chooses to send their child to a private school, then it should be their responsibility, not the township or the state, to pay for it. One of the concepts that this great nation was built upon was separation of church and state – meaning that taxpayers should not be paying for any religious education. If this was any other town in the U.S., your discussion would not be occurring. It is my prayer that someday some government official will look into what is occurring in Lakewood (similar to what happened last month)and things will change. Or perhaps, “the cooperating witness” of late, will blow the whistle on what is occurring in Lakewood.

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