Backlash After Funds for Community Center Cut by Lawrence Schools

Members of the Lawrence School District yesterday pleaded with the district's board of trustees to restore funding to the Five Towns Community Center, which had provided the school with three social workers and other services.

"I'm a product of the community center," Ashley Howell, a 2008 graduate and current Brooklyn College student, said at the Nov. 16 meeting at . "I believe the community center took me away from the streets and kept me on a path. When the school board takes money away, what does that say to us?"

School District 15 had been appropriating about $100,000 in funds to the Five Towns Community Center, a private, non-profit agency that provides multiple services for lower income people in the Five Towns. This year's school budget is $94.1 million. Members of the school board did not respond to any public comments during the meeting. Audience members who spoke noted that the center provided 60 jobs to graduates and that the services provided by the organization were especially important for black and Hispanic students in the district.

"Who else goes into the homes of the children who don't speak English or are at risk?" asked Gregory Nunn of the Inwood Community Group, which meets at the Five Towns Community Center. "If we raise the bottom, it pushes the kids on the top higher." He added, "We don't know if you're right if we don't know what you're discussing."

Felipe Plaza, who is involved in the Five Towns Community Center's activities and is a member of the Hispanic Association, also asked for the restoration of funds to the organization. "They're critical to the Latino and African-American students," he said. "With both populations growing within the schools, it's important to restore the funds."

However, Dr. Asher Mansdorf, vice president of the Lawrence School District Board of Education, noted that the recession has forced every school district to make cuts. "I understand the concerns of those that spoke publicly last night at the meeting," said Mansdorf, who was not present at the meeting. "I understand how important the Five Towns Community Center is to them."

He continued, "But people need to understand that my primary concern is to raise enough money to provide those children and others with the finest education possible. With resources so scarce, it's our intention to use the funds in a way that we think is best."

Mansdorf said that it was inappropriate for public schools to fund a private organization, since the district could not control the services it received. He'd rather the school provided children with their educational needs within its buildings, he said.

Comments made by Pete Sobol suggest the board is missing the point. "The community center connects with the community the way the schools can't," he said. "There's a value to the leadership representing the membership. On this piece, I think you (the board) got it wrong."