What's Next for Medical Facility Opposition Group?

Due in large part to the efforts of the Community Coalition of the Five Towns, a referendum that would have allowed Simone to build a medical facility at Number Six School was soundly rejected by School District 15 voters in a two-to-one margin. But the organization’s fight is not over.

The group of about 40 to 50 people — many of whom live around the Church Street school — came together to oppose Simone’s proposed medical facility and poured their time and money into a public campaign with phone calls, mailings and public events. They describe the organization as a grassroots effort by concerned parents to improve quality of life, quality education, neighborhood safety and preservation and governmental transparency. Given the group’s first successful effort, it has the potential to transform the environment of School District 15.

“The coalition intends to serve as an ongoing force for good in the community,” said Joshua Schein, a Woodmere resident and president of the group. “We intend to serve as the positive, persuasive and unifying force in the community. We’d like to unite the entire community around the issues that are important to all of us.”

The coalition will continue to focus on Number Six School, but it is also setting its sights on the Lawrence School Board, whose members the group blame for allowing the Simone bid to go through and not handling the election well.

“It seems [the board] just does what they want without public input and discussion,” Schein said. “That’s the impression they give.”

Schein said the coalition “will do everything we can to make sure the board only accepts bids that are good for the community.” For them, that means preserving the ball fields, which would have been paved over in Simone’s plan. The group hopes to meet with potential bidders and will also explore legal avenues to preserve the fields.

The coalition’s next big effort will come in the form of a candidate, Dov Herman, who was very active in the referendum effort, in the race for the outgoing Solomon Blisko’s seat on the Lawrence Board of Education. (He will face Jesse Lunin-Pack and Tova Plaut.) It is also supporting incumbent Rabbi Nahum Marcus (who will face Juan Zapeda and former board member Michael Hatten).

“CC5T rallied our community to action — but the people of our community really won,” Herman said. “We learned that our school board was not acting in the best interests of the people who elected them. The Lawrence School Board needs more trustees who are independent-thinkers and vocal advocates for the public good.”

Another coalition member, Josh Justic, said the group wants a seat at the table to make sure there’s no repeat of the Number Six School referendum.

“We do feel it’s time for a change. We want to move forward,” he said. “Our goal is to be a force of good in the community and try to make the Five Towns a better place to live.”

Coalition members are also coordinating voter registrations in local high schools. Members of the group have already met with local, county and state legislators and representatives to discuss matters of concern to the community, Schein said. Eventually, the group would like to “represent the broader Five Towns community.”

“We’re not professional organizers or community activists in any sense,” Schein said. “We’re parents who are concerned about this community and our children, so we came together for something that we saw was threatening. We learned as we went along.”