NJ Education Commissioner Visiting Lakewood

hi my name is Senator Robert Singer the 30th legislative district I want to urge you this June to please come out in the primary and vote for our friend Steve Langer who's running for reelection Steve has done an outstanding job as Township committee Deputy Mayor and mayor and we need him back there to serve another term thank you very much I very much appreciative of the coming to L taking his time uh engaging with L it's just not a mere visit and uh we have I want to welcome also Mike AER and introduce him to the Laker Community he was appointed by the commissioner in order to uh help us and bring some expertise that uh Mr Zara uh with all his uh many years of service to the to the department brings with him and we looking towards atmosphere of partnership and I think we we've been dealing with each other for the last two weeks as a whole board and the commissioner mentioned before uh he has never seen a board as as uh engaging with with a monitor because usually uh the boards have attitude to push it back against the monitor so we're looking to work with uh with the monitor we're also looking to work uh as a community and bring any changes that will come do through the community through a dialogue not impose I think that's something that the commissioner mentioned which is important to everyone here and people are concerned within have kind of anxiety in Lakewood in terms of what are the changes that being imposed on lakid uh the message is that we're going to have a dialogue everybody will be heard and hopefully uh through that dialogue we could cut something that everyone accepts and I think I'm very much appreciative in the in the approach that the commission is taking this I want to thank you very much we have to like the township as the mayor of like the township but you've done amazing pulling it together I'm very excited the fact you're the president of the board this year obviously as a from municipal government we we don't get involved in the board event but that being said obviously everything flows to the top and I certainly get all the pressure so I appreciate on behalf of myself and I know the private schools and public schools everyone getting together we appreciate you taking the initiative to pull this together and especially if the commissioner can takeen from his busy schedule to come out today to be here with us much appreciated it's a pleasure and um I have a couple of of comments and then maybe kind of a broader conversation about some of those but uh maybe a quick uh quick round of introduction here uh just so I can get start learning some of the names and faces well let me take us back uh around 3 weeks four weeks uh we met in the department with the board leadership and the administration and I think I had a very uh a tight message and that Tye messages you know we have we've got a very shortterm budget issue that we need to work through and my line is that District cannot have a cash flow deficit people need checks they need they need to be paid and they need to to live and so the monitor was going to work on that but I also indicated that what's driving the budget problems are uh these very difficult uh situation that it developed over a long period of time and not just the last year or even five years and that we have to look at this in a shortterm and a long-term process and in my mind the short-term process is getting through this current school year without a cash flow issue and being uh putting together a responsible budget for fy15 but we've got these longer term issues that need to be resolved and I think in order for us to even have a shot coming up with some uh acceptable Solutions and acceptable in my mind is that the community has input the community has dialogue um and the community doesn't have to agree to every single thing that's being done but at least they need to accept that what we're what we're doing they understand what we're doing and have had some uh very um uh important and meaningful abilities to shape what we're doing that's that input and the dialogue and so that's the long process and what I'm recommending is that the Board of Education and the superintendent start engaging the community right away in terms of developing a strategic plan that sets out what's your most important goals in this district and then that way we can start working on how to accomplish those goals and you're going to have to wrap folks into this other than the Board of Education and the superintendent in the state of New Jersey certainly the township has a very import important role to play in shaping a vision for educating all the children of this District I mean all of the children within lak would have to be part of um our strategic planning process but what are the priorities uh for that um for that strategic plan and then to the extent we need expertise um from the state level the uh we're more than happy to bring that uh if we have governance issues in terms of cooperation and establishing a single Vision then we can be helpful regarding that if there are Transportation issues that derive from health and safety uh I think those are things we can also be helpful on but I think the first step is trying to engage the community broadly in a conversation regarding what are our priorities and we can then start building a budget and a facilities plan that revolves around those priorities and so I think you look at why we're here in a short term and a long term I think maybe it starts becoming a little clearer that we are here to be helpful we understand that these issues are so complicated and so unique that identifying unintended consequences becomes very important and so we're we're certainly not here to say we have the answers to your problems just do what we say and everything will be all right matter of fact I'm I'm definitely not saying that but I am saying that I think there are ways we could uh uh develop a process that has that outcome uh at a central point and if anything um I think we need to get the right people in the right room work on things like solidarity work on things like commitment over time anyone who thinks that it's a year process is is fooling themselves I think we're talking about a five a six a seven eight maybe even a 10 year process of getting everyone where they wants want to be um but certainly educational quality is not where we want it to be in Lakewood but there's a lot of reasons for that by the way and um I don't want this process to be a finger pointing exercise I want this process to actually result in some degree of um solidarity around goals it's good for everyone having strong Public Schools is good for everyone having safe transportation for private school students is good for everyone and we and having good educational opportunities for students with disabilities that's good for everyone in the district and I think those are goals we can all agree to and things should be in a uh strategic plan uh but right now we need to have that process so where everyone's involved and certainly the township might have a role other people might have a role the county might have a role County vocational school might have a role the County College might have a role Department of Community Affairs might have a role Department of Transportation might have a role but we need to start a process before we can start figuring out who needs to be at that table and as we move past the short-term budget issues I don't want to lose any momentum in working on that longer term process and I'd urge everyone around this table to Think Through what that might mean in your community even though I lived here for seven years it was many many years ago um I had hair um I was 50 lbs lighter uh so it was a long long time ago but I still love I still I live in Lakewood actually right over at High Point Condominiums um yep uh back long long time ago uh and so I I do love love the town uh there's everything in this town you could possibly want um from point to the post how long it um it was a lot different back then I can tell you um you did in two minutes you do 20 minutes yeah you could actually even cross over at that railroad crossing the freight train would go so slow uh but a lot different back then and no no I remember coming to a meeting um and was passing through Lakewood maybe five six months ago and I was saying to everyone all right it's only 10 minutes from here to there like 30 minutes later I finally got there it's just it is and so I get the traffic issues very uh very clearly by the way I get those traffic issues and even back when I lived here Route 9 was a uh was a treacherous Highway um