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July 28, 2006

An interesting twist on school board politics

BoardBuzz isn't sure what to make of this item from Newsday that popped up on NSBA's Newsstand last week.

In the community of Lawrence (N.Y.), where a large portion of the population are Orthodox Jews whose children attend private schools, private school voters, weary of paying taxes to support public schools, have recently elected two new members to the seven-member board. The board is now controlled by the Orthodox Jewish majority. A previous article in Newsday indicates "As [Orthodox Jews] numbers have grown, enrollment in the public schools has dropped, along with support for the public school budget, which has been rejected every year since 2003. The district is now in its third straight year on a contingency budget and is about to sell an elementary school for $27.5 million that was shut down due to dwindling enrollment." Ah, but the story doesn't end there. No sir.

Last week, Fu-Yang Tang, mother of three public school students, filed a petition with the State Department of Education seeking to oust three of the four members because they "have been derelict in their duty." Tang's attorney, Elizabeth Meyerson said, "Each one of these grievances has merit. This kind of conduct is simply inappropriate for a trustee of a public school district, in Lawrence or anywhere in the state."

One of the board members in question, Michael Hattan responded, calling the charges "garbage, frivilous, and truly bizarre." He went on to say, "It's a concoction on the part of a fringe element of the community to overturn the results of a popular election ... because we now control the majority of the board."

BoardBuzz is definitely intrigued by this story and as the plot thickens, will continue to provide updates.

Posted July 28, 2006 2:55 PM | School Boards

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Comments(1)

Posted by: Elizabeth Meyerson on August 30, 2006 11:04 PM

The grievance against Uri Kaufman claimed there is an inherent dereliction of duty in taking a school board seat and retaining a seat on TEACH NYS, a lobbying group dedicated to school vouchers and other means of diverting public education funds to private interests. He was also derelict in his duty in chastising those he pejoratively called "public school parents" who clapped for the passage of a teachers union contract, bringing a school board meeting to a virtual standstill with his venom, and in filing affidavits claiming his school board election did not cost anything. Zero. At least his running mate Michael Hatten filed affidavits fessing up to an eight dollar (yes $8.00) budget (we grievanced him for that, too).

The Grievance against Murray Forman sought review of his year-long record of abstaining or voting no on expenditures that would not be matched by spending in private schools - for example, he voted "no" on authorizing the money to pay for repairs the fire marshall Ordered for fire escapes on our early childhood (pre-k & K) building.

The Petitioner on these grievances is a mother of three who has been active in her sons' PTAs for nearly a decade. A two-year president of the elementary school PTA, after daring to call foul and file these grievances she gets called "fringe element" by someone who has no kids in our public schools, and naturally, she faces the charge of anti-semitism for her efforts. This is hardly a challenge to the elections; the State of New York has no other grievance mechanism besides seeking removal. And the cherry on the cake? This Board voted unanimously to pay the costs of their defense. Welcome to Lawrence.