New Jersey state officials have moved forward with efforts to take over the Lakewood Township School District, citing “ongoing fiscal and operational concerns.”
Lakewood’s population is largely made up of Orthodox Jews, whose children go to religious day schools. Only 6,000 of the 50,000 school-age children attend public schools, according to NJ.com. The influx of Orthodox Jews has made Lakewood one of New Jersey’s fastest-growing municipalities.
More than half of the district’s budget goes for private-school transportation and for tuition for students with special needs.
As a first step, state officials filed an order to show cause, which calls on the district to explain why the state shouldn’t take it over. The state’s education department stated that the filing “represents a significant and necessary action to address persistent deficiencies that have denied Lakewood students the thorough and efficient education guaranteed by the New Jersey constitution.”
If the New Jersey Board of Education agrees, the state would run the district rather than the district’s elected school board. New Jersey has taken over four city school districts, but this would be the state’s first intervention in a suburban district.
“For more than a decade, the New Jersey Department of Education has been working with the Lakewood Township School District to address ongoing fiscal and operational concerns that impact students, staff, parents and the entire Lakewood community,” Kevin Dehmer, the state’s education department commissioner, stated.
“For all of those impacted, most especially the students of Lakewood, we are obligated to intervene in this situation and provide the district with the necessary oversight to course correct,” he said. (JNS sought comment from the district.)
The state action comes after the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court ruled in September that Lakewood public school students faced “an ongoing constitutional deprivation” and there was a “consistent pattern of neglect and misfeasance” by school district leaders, according to NJ.com.
New Jersey has lent the district more than $230 million since 2014, including a $65 million emergency loan last year, according to the Asbury Park Press.
