This is an article from the Asbury Park Press, here is a link to the article:

ASBURY PARK — An administrative law judge has refused to back Asbury Park school board president Remond Palmer and his board majority who are trying for reasons not yet clear to remove school board administrator Corey Lowell from her job before she gets tenure in August.

Judge John Schuster III earlier this month denied a petition for emergent relief from the board to get Lowell out while a court case proceeds.

The board is going after the state fiscal monitor Lester Richens who used his powers over district finances to overturn the board’s refusal to renew Lowell’s contract in late May.

Richens contended, and the judge cited him in the decision, that Richens had reviewed various audits and evaluations and “confirmed her exceptional performance as business administrator.”

Palmer, who took over as president this spring, brought in new lawyers —Schwartz Simon Edelstein and Celso — who are assisting the board in challenging the state Department of Education’s legal power to oversee Asbury Park school district finances including hiring and firing.

Why Palmer was determined to get Lowell out before she gets tenure Aug. 26 after serving for three years remains unclear. The board in the court papers contends the current state audit had some continuing negatives and argues the simple fact that the state continues to have a monitor in the district at all is a reason for Lowell to go.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Press, here is a link to the article:

LAKEWOOD — – The Lakewood School District has received notification that it will receive a federal School Improvement Grant – worth about $6 million over three years, said Michael I. Inzelbuch, school board attorney.

The money is part of $11.6 million given to New Jersey from the federal government. School districts were awarded money competitively based on compliance to a strict set of guidelines.

When announcing the application process during a board meeting in the spring, district Superintendent Lydia Silva said the money would be used to help turn Lakewood High School around and improve the graduation rate, which was 37.6 percent for the 2009-2010 school year. The monies will be used for new technology in the classrooms, educational tools for students and teacher professional development programs, Silva said.

“When a school continues to perform in the bottom five percent of the state and isn’t showing signs of progress or has graduation rates below 60 percent over a number of years, something dramatic needs to be done,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in an April news release.

In 2010, the federal government provided $546 million in SIG funds to turn around the lowest performing schools, according to the release.

The Lakewood School District received notification July 15 to send three administrative representatives to a two-week daily seminar in Jamesburg that will prepare them for the regulations and stipulations regarding the funding, Inzelbuch said.

This is an article from NJ.com, here is a link to the article:

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie will announce legislation today to create public-private partnerships to run some schools in New Jersey, three people with knowledge of the plan said.

The governor is scheduled to make the announcement at noon at the Lanning Square Elementary School in Camden.

Two of the sources said Christie will be appearing with Camden Mayor Dana Redd, a Democrat who has worked with the Republican governor on education issues.

It’s unclear exactly how the public-private partnerships would work, and the sources said it would start as a pilot program. They declined to speak on the record in advance of the public announcement.

One source said individual districts would need to opt into the pilot program and approval from local school boards would be required.

Christie’s acting education commissioner, Christopher Cerf, has experience in public-private school partnerships. He previously led Edison Schools, a for-profit company that became the largest private-sector manager of public schools. Cerf left the company, now called EdisonLearning, in 2005.

Christie is also connected to for-profit education companies, including Cerf’s.

From 1999 to 2001, Christie was a registered lobbyist at a law firm that lobbied New Jersey government on behalf of Edison Schools, according to filings with the state Election Law Enforcement Commission. While the firm was representing the multinational education company, Chris Cerf was its general counsel.

The firm, Dughi, Hewit and Palatucci, also represented Mosaica Education, a for-profit charter school operator, and the University of Phoenix, a for-profit online university.

This is an article from NJ.com, here is a link to the article:

NJ Senate Democrats Consider Budget That Would Increase School Funding By $600M, Reintroduce ‘Millionaire’s Tax’

TRENTON — Senate Democrats are thinking of introducing their own budget that would increase school financing by as much as $1.1 billion, including about $600 million for non-Abbott school districts, according to four people familiar with the plan.

The money would come from a combination of additional revenue, some cuts in spending, and possibly a millionaire’s tax, said the sources, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the plan.

The proposal is emerging less than three weeks after the state Supreme Court ordered the state to increase financing for poor school districts, known as Abbott districts, by $500 million, and with three weeks to go until the legislature is required to approve a budget for the next fiscal year.

The plan was unveiled by State Senate President Stephen Sweeney at a recent Senate Democratic caucus, the sources said. Derek Roseman, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats, said he would not comment on internal deliberations, nor would he confirm or deny the proposal.

The state Supreme Court stopped short of ordering the restoration of the full $1.7 billion in cuts that Gov. Chris Christie relied on to balance this year’s budget. The governor said he would comply with the order after giving some mixed signals, but left it to the Democrat-controlled legislature to work out the details — as long as there is no tax increase.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Press Website, here is a link to the article:

ASBURY PARK — School board president Remond Palmer and his board majority are seeking to reverse the former state fiscal monitor’s action to close the Barack Obama Elementary School, a March action now well underway to consolidate the district’s declining elementary enrollment in the two newest schools, Thurgood Marshall and Bradley Elementary.

By a vote of 5 to 4, the board directed new lawyer Alan Schnirman to find the most effective way to reverse the closure.

But Lester Richens, the newest fiscal monitor assigned by the state, who attended his first meeting Wednesday night and is replacing Bruce Rodman, told the board members there was not money in the budget to reverse the March action and reopen the school for the fall.

He said if the board was going to pursue that step, they should first get a ceiling on the cost.

“If you pursue litigation, it would become a very costly item in the future,” Richens said. “I suggest you and the attorney and superintendent come up with a ceiling on costs.”

Richens said the board should first get an estimate of the costs from Schnirman before he investigates the board’s options. Schnirman could come back to the next board meeting on June 8 and the public could be told what the projected cost would be.

Schnirman warned there was a fast-approaching deadline to take legal action and also said his legal expenses were capped on an annual basis.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Press Website, here is a link to the article:

TRENTON — An opinion by a divided state Supreme Court on Tuesday sets up a state budget confrontation between a Republican governor who vows not to raise taxes and a Democratic-controlled state Legislature seeking to funnel even more money to local schools.

The state Supreme Court, in a 3-2 decision, ordered New Jersey to provide full funding for 31 school districts that have long received massive state aid under previous court orders.

The ruling presents the state with a much smaller bill — estimated to be $500 million — than it would have if the court had ordered New Jersey to provide full state aid, some $1.75 billion more, to all school districts.

But the decision also marks a rebuke for Gov. Chris Christie, who has criticized the court over the school funding issue since he was a gubernatorial candidate.

Christie, who had broached the idea of defying the court in a radio appearance, said in a press conference that he would comply with the order. Christie said the Legislature should now determine the state budget that takes effect July 1, but he said he did not want to see new taxes.

Christie also castigated the decision.

“As a fundamental principle, I do not believe it is the role of the state Supreme Court to determine what programs the state should and should not be funding, and to what amount,” he said in a news conference. “The Supreme Court is not the Legislature.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Press Website, here is a link to the article:

ASBURY PARK — Lester Richens, the retired Belmar school superintendent who has served in state education posts since retiring in 2007, will be the next state fiscal monitor overseeing the Asbury Park school district finances, starting May 24.

Richens, who is 64 and lives in Neptune, retired from the Belmar elementary district in 2007 after being the superintendent for more than three decades.

He led a legal fight by Belmar in the late 1980s, along with other sending districts to Asbury Park High School, to end the law that assigned part of Belmar’s high school population to go to Asbury.

The sending districts lost those decisions in part because it meant that Asbury Park High School would become increasingly segregated, with virtually no white students.

In the end, however, that is what happened, because parents, citing Asbury’s poor performing schools, sent their children to private school or moved elsewhere.

Richens is signed on to work as fiscal monitor for six months, until Nov. 24. He most recently served as the Burlington County executive superintendent of schools and is currently a state monitor for the Garfield City school district, Nakell Williams, spokeswoman for the Asbury Park school district, said Wednesday.

Richens is expected to work fewer days a week than the current monitor, Bruce Rodman, who is retiring, but has worked full-time in the Asbury Park post.

The state has assigned a fiscal monitor to the district since 2007 and has virtual control over all spending, hiring and firing decisions.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Press Website, here is a link to the article:

ASBURY PARK — New school board president Remond Palmer finally got the law firm he has wanted in place Wednesday night. Alan J. Schnirman of Schwartz Simon Edelstein Celso of Morristown was back in the seat he gave up to lawyer Michael Gross of Red Bank in 2009.

State fiscal monitor Bruce Rodman, who has the final say on finances and hiring and firing in the district, had held off earlier attempts by Palmer to change law firms, saying it was premature at that time.

Schnirman guided the board in the 2006 removal of former superintendent Antonio Lewis, who was knocked out of that job but through litigation won his right to a job as a district principal. He currently is the principal of the city middle school.

The school board has been deeply divided in recent months as power shifted to Palmer, a former board president removed by the state on an ethics charge, who was elected again last year.

Palmer’s refusal to back Superintendent Denise Lowe on several educational initiatives fostered concern in the community that Palmer would attempt to fire Lowe.

“It seems to me we’re doing the same old thing we did when we got rid of our last superintendent,” the Rev. John Bradley, president of the Asbury Park Neptune Ministerial Alliance, told the board Wednesday. “We have the same player, got the same lawyer as before. I think the president of the board is leading us into a destructive district again. … The district doesn’t belong to you.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Press Website, here is a link to the article:

ASBURY PARK — The Board of Education saw two incumbents and two new members sworn in Wednesday night at a meeting dominated by a noticeable public display by a law firm to be named board attorney.

Gregory Hopson and Gregory Brewington were sworn into new three-year terms and newcomers Angela Ahbez-Anderson and Sheila Brazile took their seats for three-year and one-year terms respectively.

Ahbez-Anderson finished just one vote ahead of running mate, Alena Berry who lost her bid for a seat. Berry said Wednesday night her ticket is seeking a recount with the intention of knocking off Hopson who finished about 25 votes ahead. A recount will be held next week, William Heine, the Monmouth County spokesman said Thursday.

The final vote tally in last week’s board elections was: Brewington, 313; Hopson, 277; Ahbez-Anderson, 252; Berry, 251; and John Morton, 202 for the three, three-year seats; and Brazille, 288 and Vanessa Barnes, 71, for the one, one-year term.

Remond Palmer, the board member who took control of five of the nine board votes in late February, officially took over as board president. Palmer faces having to step down from the board because of legislation that disqualifies board members if they have a past criminal offense, the same as those that prevent individuals from working in New Jersey schools.

In Palmer’s case, the offense is a cocaine possession charge in South Carolina when he was in his early 20s. He is 43 now.

On Thursday, his last day to sign or veto that legislation, Gov.

This is an article from the Asbury Park Press Website, here is a link to the article:

ASBURY PARK — Schools Superintendent Denise Lowe will focus on the changes in both education and school building assignments for children next fall at her spring town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School, 600 Monroe Ave.

The meeting is important for parents in light of the closing of the Barack Obama Elementary School next fall. Students who normally would go to the Obama neighborhood school are being assigned to the two other elementary schools, and if in fifth grade, to the Asbury Park Middle School.

Parents can learn their child’s school assignment and safety measures that will be in place for walking students. In addition, Lowe will discuss a new fifth-grade wing that is being created at the middle school.
That town meeting will follow Wednesday night’s school board reorganization meeting at 7 p.m. at Bradley Elementary School. Incumbents Gregory Hopson and Gregory Brewington will be sworn into new terms and elected newcomers Angelina Ahbez-Anderson and Sheila Brazile will begin their first terms for three-year and one-year terms respectively.

Brazile has three children. Her oldest son is an Asbury Park High School graduate, a second son is at the high school now and a daughter is in first grade at Bradley Elementary School.

Candidate Alena Berry who was the announced winner over Ahbez-Anderson by one vote on election night, but sheturned out to be one vote behind in certified election results Tuesday, school district spokeswoman Nakill Williams said.

Ahbez-Anderson is president of the Thurgood Marshall PTO.