Lakewood school board faces first major challenge since 2014

LAKEWOOD – For the first time in nearly a decade, the current Lakewood Board of Education is being challenged at the ballot box.

Seven candidates filed Monday to run for the three seats up for grabs in the November election, including four challengers.

The board has not seen such a contested race since 2014.

“It would be expected that this would happen,” said Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg, a former township committee member and spokesperson for the Lakewood Vaad, an influential group of Orthodox Jewish business and community leaders. “The community is getting larger. There are new communities that have sort of sprouted up over the last couple of years.”

The increased election interest is occurring as the school district faces its most serious fiscal issues in years, with more than $125 million in state loan debt, a long-running lawsuit over state funding and the ongoing impact of the pandemic and so-called “lost learning.”

More: NJ wants financial review of Lakewood Schools after court orders more funding

“It seems to me like a potentially hopeful sign,” said Paul Tractenberg, founder of the Rutgers University Education Law Center and co-counsel for a 2014 lawsuit against the state seeking improved state funding for the district. “I think anything that shakes it up, that brings greater openness and transparency and public input is for the public good.”

Those running for the three available seats include incumbents Ada Gonzalez, Moshe Raitzik, and Eliyahu Greenwald.

Also running are challengers Avrohom Shubert, Eli Eisenbach, and Yoni Morgenstern, who have dubbed their slate “Fixing the Formula,” an apparent reference to the state funding formula that has been at issue for years.

"I would like to see that adequate state funding is obtained for the district to improve the scholastic needs of the students and at the same time alleviate the local, Lakewood taxpayer burden," Shubert said via email. "I care about all the students in the district and want to see the success of all of them. Lakewood Township has unique needs."

The fourth challenger is Yehuda Shain, whose slogan is “Accountability and Transparency.”

None of the other challengers could be reached for comment.

Raitzik, who has served on the board since 2017, is the only incumbent to offer a reaction to the increased candidate pool, saying via email, “I don’t have any comment on the challengers because I don't know who they are. I've never seen or heard from them (at) BOE meetings before, and I don't know their credentials. I do know my running mates, Ada Gonzalez and Eliyahu Greenwald, are dedicated public servants, and I am proud to run for reelection with them.”

The larger field is unusual in Lakewood, which has not had a contested race for each seat since 2014, when seven candidates ran for three seats.

Since then, three candidates ran unopposed four times - from 2018 to 2021 - and four candidates ran for three seats in 2015, 2016 and 2022.

More: Lakewood Schools deserve more state funding for busing students, appeals court rules

“I think contested races are good,” said Lakewood Mayor Ray Coles, who is facing a contested reelection himself for township committee. “It keeps you on your toes. People should always have a choice.”

A larger electorate may well be part of the reason for the increased pool of candidates. Lakewood’s exploding population, which went from 92,843 in 2010 to 135,138 in 2020, makes it the fastest growing city in New Jersey. It is the fourth most-populated municipality after Newark, Jersey City, and Paterson.

But the district has also suffered from a slew of fiscal issues, ranging from stagnant state funding to a growing loan debt and rising costs that have affected all districts.

The salary of Board of Education Attorney Michael Inzelbuch has also been a concern. Inzelbuch, who first served as board attorney from 2002 to 2012, has been in the post more recently since 2017.

More: 'Obscene and immoral': Lakewood school attorney pay tops $1 million per year

An Asbury Park Press 2021 investigation found that he had earned more than $1 million in both the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years. More recently that was reduced to $992,000 in calendar year 2021.

Gov. Phil Murphy has called his income levels “eye-popping.”

State education officials in May announced a new review of Lakewood Schools finances after an appeals court ordered that the Department of Education improve state funding for the district.

“Once the expedited comprehensive review is complete,” Acting State Education Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan wrote in a letter May 12, “the (state education) department will be better equipped on how best to ensure that Lakewood’s public school students receive the necessary education required by our state’s constitution.”

Allen-McMillan penned the letter to plaintiff attorneys related to the ongoing lawsuit.

In March, a state appeals court ruled that Lakewood public schools do not receive adequate state funding to meet their needs. The appeals court declared that the district is “severely strained” by its obligation to provide transportation and special education to thousands of non-public school students.

The appeals court decision relates to the nine-year-old Alcantara case, a lawsuit filed by Tractenberg and attorney Arthur Lang, a Lakewood High School teacher. Their complaint challenged the state’s funding of the 6,000-student district, claiming the district’s legal obligation to provide transportation and other services to more than 30,000 nonpublic school students required more state aid.

In the decision handed down March 6, the three-person appellate court declared that Allen-McMillan must review the district’s situation and come up with a way to improve its funding. But it did not include a deadline or a more detailed requirement for how to proceed.

Meanwhile, Lakewood Schools loan debt has grown to more than $135 million, with a recent request for another $93 million.

The loans date back to the 2014-15 school year when the district borrowed $4.5 million. Since then, school officials have also received $5.6 million in 2016-17; $8.5 million in 2017-18; $28.1 million in 2018-19; $36 million in 2019-20; $54.5 million in 2020-2021; and $24 million in 2022-23.

Joe Strupp is an award-winning journalist with 30 years’ experience who covers education and several local communities for APP.com and the Asbury Park Press. He is also the author of three books, including Killing Journalism on the state of the news media, and an adjunct media professor at Rutgers University and Fairleigh Dickinson University. Reach him at jstrupp@gannettnj.com and at 732-413-3840. Follow him on Twitter at @joestrupp

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Lakewood school board election features more candidates than seats