An almost civil disagreement: Lawrence school board elections loom

By Michael Orbach

The chill in the air this week was perfectly timed. Nothing would seem to complement the annual Lawrence School Board election better than rain, wind and sporadic hail. In Lawrence, Cedarhurst, Long Beach, Atlantic Beach and parts of Woodmere, neighbors no longer seem quite so neighborly; fences and hedges feel a little taller, even foreboding, as the now annual conflict between Jews and non-Jews, Orthodox and non-Orthodox, private school and public school parents, begins again. This year, with three seats up for grabs on the District 15 board, is no different.

Jay Silverstein, Annie Reyes, and Nicole Di Lorio are challenging board members Solomon Blisko, David Sussman and Nahum Marcus, respectively. Given that the teachers’ contract will be renegotiated this year, the election is viewed as especially important.

A Meet the Candidate night at Lawrence Middle School on Tuesday seemed, at first, to be free of the rancor that often plagues school board meetings. Last year, public school parents held their own candidate event at a park in Inwood. This year Blisko couldn’t make it, but the five candidates who were present were civil toward each other, cooperatively passing around a microphone. The loudest cry of protest emerged from a boy whose mother refused to let him drink from a bottle of red Vitamin Water. The mood changed, however, as the evening progressed, and loud murmurs could be heard from audience members unfriendly to the incumbents.

A moderator from the League of Women Voters asked each candidate a battery of questions including how he or she would heal the divisions between district residents, and whether they live in the district (all answered in the affirmative).

A special ire seemed to be reserved for David Sussman. The urologist from Lawrence is a graduate of the Lawrence public schools, and a 15-year veteran of the school board whose children attended the schools as well; his son, Sam, is currently in the tenth grade. Some public school parents take as a personal betrayal Sussman’s longtime alignment with board members who are Orthodox and send their children to yeshiva. He was subjected to a number of disparaging comments about his physical appearance, but was unabashed about a school board he feels is the best the Lawrence School District has seen.

“It’s a board that’s willing to do what’s right for children and what’s right for the community and not be afraid of criticism, not be afraid to stand up in a storm,” Sussman told The Jewish Star earlier in the day.

On Wednesday evening he repeatedly thanked his family who sat in the first row and were often the only people who cheered for him. To highlight his points about fiscal responsibility, he waved a newspaper clipping about budget cuts in Mineola. He listed the board’s accomplishments.

“We’ve created the finest free universal pre-k program on Long Island,” Sussman said. “This was done under Dr. [Asher] Mansdorf [a past president of the board] and continued by [current president] Dr. [Murray] Forman ­— a creation of the so-called Orthodox/private school board.”

The board has also increased the school day for fifth graders by 119 50-minute periods, the equivalent of three extra weeks of schooling, and has the “finest arts and theater program” on Long Island, Sussman said. Even Sussman’s opponent, Annie Reyes, an African-American mother of eight and grandmother of 14 from North Lawrence, seemed aware of his stature.

“I think I got the short end of the straw,” she laughed on the day of the event.

Reyes has a pleasant, easy-going manner that belied her reasons for running for a seat on the board.

“I complain and I complain that I don’t like this and I don’t like this,” Reyes explained. “I like to be a part of the solution and not part of the problem. I can’t complain and sit on the outside and not want to do something. You can only sit back for so long.”

She continued: “Dr. Sussman has tried to make the best decision that benefits the children and families but right now we need something a little different.”

Selling decommissioned school buildings is a short-term solution to a long-term problem, Reyes stressed. “Sooner or later we have to pay the piper.”

In an interview with The Jewish Star, she elaborated on her point. “We can’t keep on selling buildings in order to pay for the upkeep,” said Reyes. “We can’t do that. I feel right now, if we close our eyes, we might wind up in a one-room schoolhouse with one teacher.”

Reyes, who ran a senior center until her retirement, said she feels that a one-percent tax increase over a period of time would help alleviate the situation.

Of the three challengers, Silverstein is the most polished and experienced. A Duke University-trained school and clinical psychologist, Silverstein worked in the Lawrence schools from 2005-2008. Currently, he consults for two private schools and manages a private practice in his hometown of Long Beach.

“I think it would be a great honor to serve the community,” Silverstein told The Jewish Star. “I graduated from Lawrence High School. I have two children in the public schools and I believe that the way of culture and traditions in our community makes this a remarkable place to live and raise children.”

He praised the current board for “getting us off contingency” and demonstrating fiscal responsibility, but he said he would be able to “help the board demonstrate the same leadership in their educational responsibilities.”

Silverstein is currently suing the school board over his recent firing that he claims was due to what his lawyer called “anti-Orthodox” feelings. Superintendent John Fitzsimons has called the accusation baseless and said the district offered Silverstein a position of greater responsibility for the same salary.

Silverstein maintained that there would be no conflict with being a member of the school board he is suing. He said that, if elected, he would recuse himself from matters concerning the lawsuit.

“I have been a committed employee for the Lawrence Public school district,” he said. “I served the district and the community in exemplary manner and I was deprived of continuing to serve the community I love. I also think the community was deprived of my continued service. Now that I am not employed by the district, I can think of no better way [to serve the community] than as a representative of the board of education.”

At the event, he stressed a plan that would focus on greater communication with community members, transparency and, in his words, thinking, “what would I do if it was my child,” before making every decision. “We have a wonderful district and our children are doing wonderfully,” he said.

Blisko, the incumbent, a dentist in Woodmere, said that Silverstein’s lawsuit “speaks for itself.”

“I’d like to finish what we started,” Blisko said in an interview Monday about why he is seeking reelection. He could not make it to the Wednesday meeting due to appointments with his patients. “We didn’t approach the tax situation with a slash-and-burn [attitude],” said Blisko. “We approached it in a fiscally responsible manner. We’re sensitive to people who pay taxes and we want to provide an excellent education to all the kids in the district, public or private.”

Blisko stressed efforts the board has made to bring the community together, like having students of two Jewish private schools collaborate with students at Lawrence High School in a performance of “Twelve Angry Men,” and the formation of the Five Towns One Community Fund, a non-profit that works with private and public schools to help poor families in the area. The board also ran a fundraising drive that raised close to $10,000 for an immigrant family that suffered a fatal fire in their home.

Answering critics who complain that the majority of the board members do not send their children to the public schools, Blisko said, “If you pay taxes you have a right to elected office.”

Arguably the least conspicuous of the three incumbents is Nahum Marcus, an ordained rabbi, who sat to Sussman’s right and seemed to slightly bemuse the audience. He has a simple answer why he’s running for re-election. “I’m a glutton for punishment,” he laughed.

Marcus joined the board three years ago when his special needs son was refused therapy by the district. He sued and won. Since being elected, Marcus has focused singularly on special education. “I know what it’s like to have it in your family,” he said.

Self-effacing, Marcus said that he was still learning the ropes and hoped to be able to continue on the board. The biggest change that was made in his tenure, he says, was one of attitude in the school office.

“The attitude I stressed in special ed is, ‘I want you to listen to the child and the needs of the child,’” he explained. “Don’t worry about the money or financing, you worry how to help, we’ll worry about the money.”

Recently, he said, a parent was suing the district to pay for the private special education of her special needs son. The school was a non-Jewish school in Manhattan and the district was refusing to pay, claiming that the boy was receiving a sub-par education. Marcus investigated and learned that the boy was doing far better in his new school. The reason he was reported to be failing, Marcus said, was that a teacher and a teacher’s aide were let go when the boy left the district.

“Instead of caring what’s good for the child they lied and tried to get the kid back,” Markus explained. “I blew a fuse. How do you are more about your job than a child with special needs?” He worked with the board to pay for the child’s tuition and told the teacher and the aide to not bother applying to the Lawrence school district again.

Reyes and Di Lorio were honest about their limitations when it came to board finances. “I’m not going to pretend to know,” said Di Lorio. “But I am willing to learn.”

In her closing statement she said her greatest qualifications were several African American and Hispanic children who sat in the first two rows to support her. “The children asked me to run,” she told The Jewish Star. “I see a division within this community. I feel that I can offer solutions to this problem. I understand the people of this District.” Di Lorio is offering to drive anyone to the voting booth on May 11th who needs a ride, “no matter who they vote for.” “Everyone has my number,” she said later.

In Reyes closing statement, she pointed out that the board does not have a female member and then listed her role model: Golda Meir. “I never did anything alone,” Reyes said, quoting the late Israeli prime minister. “Whatever was accomplished was accomplished collectively.”

In his closing statement, Marcus mentioned “When Humanity Fails,” an exhibit in the Lawrence High School about American soldiers liberating concentration camps during World War Two. “For the children, all of us can learn to get along,” he said.