Letters
More about the school board
I am writing in response to an article that you published on August 1 titled “No, That’s Not legal.” I am writing on my own, as a private citizen and not as a member of the Teaneck Board of Education. The statements in this letter were not authorized by the Board, written on behalf of the Board, express the point of view of the Board, nor speak for any other Board member.
I strongly disagree with the article’s spin, which mainly recapitulates observations by Mr. Keith Kaplan. Indicating that “the Board tried to keep the subject of the meeting ‘secret’” is uninformed and pointlessly if not darkly toxic. The meeting Mr. Kaplan is referring to took place on December 21, 2023, when the Board voted on a personnel matter to transfer the principal. Mr. Kaplan filed a lawsuit to invalidate the action, but the Court refused to do so. It simply directed the Board to cure the notice defect at a properly noticed meeting, which it did on August 21.
Mr. Kaplan’s insinuations are misleading and incorrect. In order to prevent viral contamination, it is imperative to correct the record.
Mr. Kaplan cast several aspersions. They are false. Personnel actions in a school board occur only on the recommendation of the Superintendent. Here, the Superintendent made a recommendation, and the Board voted on it at a very well attended public meeting. Nothing took place in secret. There was no nefarious cabal.
Mr. Kaplan refers to the Board’s decision to limit public comments to two minutes from the customary three minutes, asserting that the reason was to limit comments which, he claims, “were overwhelmingly in favor of keeping” the principal. In fact, with one hour allocated for this purpose, the two-minute ruling gave more people, not fewer as he asserted, the chance to speak. Each speaker freely gave his or her opinion and, after listening to all of them, the Board voted in public. Regardless of Mr. Kaplan’s protestations to the contrary, the fact is that nothing took place in secret. There was public comment, and there was a public vote by the Board on the Superintendent’s recommendation.
It is unfair and unduly disruptive for Mr. Kaplan to attribute malice when none existed.
Dr. Dennis Klein
Teaneck
Dr. Klein is a trustee of the Teaneck Public Schools Board of Education
He’s voting for Trump
Once again, you have seen fit to print another editorial by a leftist Jew, Jack Nelson, “The Convergence of politics and religion”. Odd that we never see an opinion piece by a right-leaning Jew?
Mr. Nelson, like your last writer Mr. Lurinsky, is another victim of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). It is full of vague proscriptions about Donald Trump without any foundation, because of course, we all “know” that Trump is a Supreme Danger to Jews and Democracy. How could any rational Jew think otherwise? Nowhere does the author speak of Trump’s record as President regarding matters Jewish: moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Israel’s rule of the Golan, starving the greatest danger to Israel, Iran, of funds, the Abraham Accords, opposition to antisemitism, etc. And he conveniently doesn’t note the Democrats’ opposite take: mostly lukewarm Israel support, the harboring of known vicious antisemites with the party, the boycott of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.
Once again, I have no love for Donald Trump. He is not a good person. But given his record, he is clearly a better alternative for the Jews. Someone in your newspaper ought to make this case, and you ought to publish it.
Steve Gross
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