Talks aimed at resolving the budget gap have focused on staggering, or tiering, the start and dismissal times of the scores of private Orthodox Jewish schools. The change would allow fewer buses to transport the same number of students, resulting in millions of dollars in savings.
Private school leaders agreed in April to shift their schedules by 15 minutes, then reconsidered, saying it would unduly disrupt their operations and create a hardship for parents. The reversal would have cost the district $2 million in extra aid from the New Jersey Department of Education and another $500,000 or more from the Township Committee. That aid was contingent on the tiering plan remaining in place.
One of the participants in the talks, Rabbi Aaron Kotler, president and chief executive officer of the Beth Medrash Govoha yeshiva, credited the breakthrough to a more fully developed tiering plan that went into greater detail with each of the affected schools.
“There was a huge amount of tweaking,” Kotler said. “With the volume of schools, that’s what was needed to make it work.”
“Everyone wants to see kids get to school, nobody wants to see the roads congested,” Kotler said. “I think this is a victory for everyone, not just the 11,000 kids who would have lost busing.”
Kotler said leaders of the Senior Action Group, which represents the interests of seniors living in Lakewood’s adult communities, played a key role in keeping the talks going.
“It’s a good day for Lakewood because I think it really shows if everybody is more considerate and more objective to other people’s needs we can get some stuff accomplished,” said the group’s chairman, Tom Gatti. APP.com
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