By:Andrew Coen
The move was approved at an association meeting on March 17 before a standing-room-only crowd of more than 200 in the Lawrence Village Country Club Ballroom. The association-s Nominations Committee will interview all candidates for school board and come up with an endorsement for each contested race before the scheduled May 18 elections.
Before the controversial vote, many members spoke out in favor of and in opposition to the first change in the civic association-s constitution since 1976.
The school board is [responsible for] the largest part of the taxes that we pay; it affects the children in this community, and it affects even something like the library ... so it-s incumbent on us to make our will as a community known by supporting a slate that supports us and mirrors our views, said David Stein, who heads the association-s constitution committee.
Gail Cooper, a former Lawrence PTA president, criticized the group-s decision to begin endorsing school board candidates. I think if you want to endorse candidates, you should go out and run your own candidates, and if you want to change things, go to the board meetings, said Cooper. I don-t think [endorsing school board candidates] should be part of the Lawrence Association.
One association member said he worries that endorsing candidates will set a dangerous precedent in isolating the village from the rest of the Five Towns. If we endorse candidates, then you-re going to find Inwood endorsing candidates and then you-ll find Cedarhurst endorsing candidates and Atlantic Beach..., he said. Is Lawrence prepared to be isolated? Are we going to be a pariah in this community? I think not, and I ask you to vote against this provision.
Jay Gelman, who earlier in the night was named to fill a vacant spot on the association-s Board of Governors, said the provision needs to be added to give the village more of a say in school matters. Aren-t we at a point now where we should look at the issues that affect this village and say we need a voice? said Gelman. Should we sit back and allow our tax dollars to be spent without any say? Let-s show the people that collect the taxes here that we have a voice.
Ed Farkas said the idea was a good one, since the school board has not been cooperative with the issues that Lawrence Village residents care about, like obtaining more property for the library driveway. Lawrence sends about 150 kids to the public schools, and we send about $20 million [in taxes] with them, and they won-t even give us 12 feet for a driveway, said Farkas. It is time for us as an association to let our feelings be known.
Lawrence Association Vice President Myrna Breitman lashed out at those supporting the change and the non-educational issues they mentioned, like the library driveway, taxes and the possible relocation of the high school to the middle school under the school superintendent-s consolidation plan.
What about voting for the candidate who cares about education? said Breitman. I have not heard one person here talking about good education, and that-s what I remember voting for a candidate for school board being all about. I think you have a venue for speaking out, but I don-t think you should be spending Lawrence Association money for endorsing a candidate and campaigning for this candidate.
Lisa Lesser, who ran unsuccessfully for school board last year and worked on the constitutional changes with Stein, addressed some of the concerns mentioned by members by saying, I don-t think this is a forum to debate the issues that are before the school board. We would just like the association to have the right in the future to debate the issues and to discuss the issues.
They have every right to do this, Lawrence school board president Frank Parise said of the group-s decision to endorse school board candidates. If they are going to interview candidates on issues that affect the Village of Lawrence and not other communities in the district, I have no problem with it.
Another change in the association-s constitution makes the library committee permanent, and increases yearly dues for membership from $20 to $25. According to Rabbi Saffra, an additional 100 members joined the association at the March 17 meeting.
