Lakewood waiting for school aid changes

State education official says they’ll have to wait some more

TRENTON – It’s been nearly six months since an appeals court ordered the state education department to create a plan for improved funding of the debt-heavy Lakewood School District.

And the state’s top education official predicts it will take at least another six months, or longer, before any new financing approach is created.

Acting Education Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan says the state is only now beginning a review of the troubled Ocean County district’s school finances to formulate a solution.

“This is only a preliminary estimate as the volume of information to be reviewed and complexity of the required analysis are unknown at this time,” Allen-McMillan wrote in an August 22 letter to plaintiffs’ attorneys in a related lawsuit. “Upon completion of the expedited comprehensive review, a report containing findings and recommendations will be issued.”

Among those tapped by Allen-McMillan to lead the review is former New Jersey Education Commissioner Kimberley Harrington Markus, who served in the top post in 2017 and 2018 after being appointed by former Governor Chris Christie.

But lawyers who brought the 9-year-old Alcantara lawsuit, which claims Lakewood is underfunded and resulted in the appeals court ruling say the commissioner is dragging her feet and simply seeking to delay any further action.

“The trial record already has everything possible for anyone to know. All the commissioner has to do is read the transcripts,” said Arthur Lang, a Lakewood High School teacher and co-counsel for the lawsuit. “This is a waste of time. The report is not going to say anything new.”

Co-counsel Paul Tractenberg, a former Rutgers law professor and founder of the Education Law Center, agreed, calling it a “colossal time waster.”

Allen-McMillen did not respond to requests for comment on the latest action. Lakewood School District