Lawrence School Board Candidate: Nahum Marcus

Patch sent the same questionnaire to all candidates running for school board this year. The following response — which has not been edited by Patch — is from Nahum Marcus, who is seeking another term on the Lawrence Board of Education in an election against Michael Hatten.

Tell us about yourself (age, town, profession, family, etc.)

Age: 53
Cedarhurst

Profession:
Woodmere Medical Rehabilitation & Health Care Center; Ritual Director/Rabbi —2012-Present (Part Time)
Landers College for Women in Manhattan, Professor – 2010-Present (Part Time)

Education:
BS in Computer Technology from Jerusalem College of Technology – 1981
BA in Computer Science from Yeshiva University, New York – 1983
MA in Jewish Studies from Bernard Revel, New York – 1983
Rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University Theological Seminary – 1984

Family: My wife Devorah and I have been married for 22 years. We have three children: a daughter Ricki, 19, a student at Touro College, twin boys Elly & Josh, both 14, in 9th grade at Mesivta Rambam in our neighborhood. (Elly has Cerebral Palsy Spastic Dispelgia and he is a special-need child).

What qualifies you to serve as a member of the school board?

I have served my community on the Lawrence District 15 Board of Education for the last six years and I am running for a third term. I believe both my educational background and experience, accompanied with my previous record of accomplishments for the past six years on the school board fully qualify me to continue serving as a school board member.

Why are you running for the school board?

I am running to hold my current board seat because I believe that under my term much has been accomplished but there still is more that can be accomplished. Like any job there is a learning curve involved, thankfully I have had the privilege of serving the community for the last 6 years, I know what I've accomplished and I think I know how to accomplish more. We are facing hard financial times and we need to ensure that strides and gains that we have made in the area of Education Special and Regular are maintained and even enhanced.

I also know that many a time I have been a lone dissenting voice on the board when I felt things weren't being conducted with the best interests of the entire community or the utmost integrity. I am running to preserve that sense of integrity, honesty and concern for all children in the district public and private that I believe I bring to the board.

What is your opinion of the budget that has been presented to the community? What you have done something differently with it?

While I believe the budget was well thought out and worked on tirelessly, I voted against it because I believe it fails to address the underlying problem facing us with this budget and all upcoming budgets. It feels like we keep putting 100 Band-Aids on a bunch of cuts instead of trying to find ways to address the overall problem. The current system simply isn’t sustainable and we need to rethink what we are doing. We need more checks and balances eliminating waste and finding more ways to generate extra revenue. The trick is to do this while not only maintaining academic standards but finding ways to enhance them.

Aside from the budget, what do you think is the biggest issue facing the school district?

Transparency and community unity. The district will be facing some hard and important decisions in the upcoming year. It is imperative that our school board be open and transparent and finds way to get more community input and involvement before making decisions.

What is the school district’s greatest strength?

Our greatest strength is a superintendent who truly cares about all the children and some board members who do too. We have great Art, Music and Athletic departments.

What is its greatest weakness?

We need to improve standardized test scores and basic educational skills in core subjects such as reading, writing, math and science. We need to do more to encourage all teachers to teach to their fullest and best capacity, to ensure every single student is treated as an individual and progressing.

If you are elected, what is the one thing you’d like to see accomplished during your term?

It’s a lot more than just one thing:

There are many issues that need to be continuously focused on and hopefully accomplished.

EDUCATION — I want to continue to help my school district to find ways to improve the core education for our public school students especially in the basic areas of English reading, writing, math and science. As a member of the board’s academic excellence committee, I have been involved in analyzing which areas of education are working well and which need strengthening. The school board’s primary job is to ensure that our public school student get the best education possible. This includes reviewing classroom materials, performance by students and teachers, and making the appropriate changes when necessary. We must raise overall student test scores, but also pay attention to each individual student’s performance and skill set.

SPECIAL EDUCATION — Our district has made many strides and changes in the area of special education during my tenure on the board. These strides need to continue and be enhanced. When it comes to special education, each child’s needs must be assessed and taken into consideration individually because each child’s special needs are unique. This enables us to make the best educational placement for each child based on their skills, abilities and disabilities, social environment, etc. We must continue to ensure that we have the best trained therapist and staff on hand to work with and support our children.

TRANSPORTATION — Transportation routes should be more accommodating to the needs of our students. Children should never spend more time than necessary on school buses. If our board can find a cost-effective way to do it, our district should provide late afternoon-early evening transportation for Yeshiva students whose schedules often run later than public schools. And, our district should stop sharing buses between two or more schools with very dissimilar schedules.

SALE OF THE NUMBER SIX SCHOOL — I have long advocated that the Number Six School be sold to a buyer who would use the building and property to benefit our community. It is important to get the best dollar value for the Number Six School to help offset taxes, but that should not be the school board’s only consideration. Our entire community should benefit from the use – leaving the ball fields intact as an example. I want to continue to monitor the process and to ensure the sale is done aboveboard, and with honesty and integrity.
TRANSPARENCY – I am gravely concerned that our current school board’s deliberations and its meetings are unfair to our parents, taxpayers and the public. The community should receive a better explanation and understanding of our agenda and what our board is thinking and doing. The public should also have a better opportunity to be heard, to voice opinions and concerns without being ignored. I propose our school board host monthly town hall-style meetings to give the public a chance to ask questions, comment, suggest ideas and get answers from the board members. I personally held two such meetings on special education issues and found them to be productive, enlightening and even enjoyable.

FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS — Our school district’s financial status needs to be handled in a more comprehensive and realistic manner. Rather than putting Band-Aids on 100 little cuts, our school board and administration must make tougher choices to end wasteful spending and duplicate services, and to find other revenue sources instead of raising property taxes. While I have several ideas about how to accomplish this, they need to be thoroughly investigated before I comment on them publicly.

COMMUNITY UNITY — Our school district serves a community of people and families from various religious, social, economic and ethnic backgrounds. It can certainly do more to be a unifying force for our entire community. Opening our doors to the community for our wonderful public school productions, offering extracurricular activities to private as well as public school students, encouraging inter-school sports, sharing art, drama or musical programs between schools, sharing library resources between schools in the district. More interaction between schools, between students and their parents would create unity and camaraderie that benefits everyone.

Where do you see public education on Long Island going in the future and what role do you hope to have in it?

I hope it will only improve and be one of the outstanding education systems not only on Long Island but in the entire country. I believe it can be done and we have the personnel in place that can accomplish it with my and the rest of the boards help.

Would you like to add anything else?

I have several ideas of ways to enhance community unity, save expenditures and increase revenue for the district. Just to give one small example: I would love to see a district wide student library card. Where any student in the district can borrow and return a book needed from any library in the district both public and private schools alike, share the resources allow the students to interact etc... Mentoring programs, joint athletic, art, music or any other extracurricular activity and many more.

Special need children are near and dear to my heart, we need to ensure that they receive the best services available to them provided by the best therapist to try and make their lives just a little easier and more successful. Finally I always have tried to be a board member who is accessible to the community, someone who is willing to listen to any parent or student with any problem and if possible try and help them and I pledge to continue doing so.