Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page B1

SECTION ASBURY PARK PRESS APP.COM SUNDAY, APRIL 29, 2012 EDITORIAL Longer lives pose new challenges Page B6 JBM ''1 Buses pick up students along Forest Avenue in Lakewood. Every school day, Lakewood has 450 buses on the road, the largest number in the state, thomas p. costellostaff photographer Private school costs, conflicts lead to turmoil Shelteak Lewis feels cheated. She ought to be excited and proud to graduate from Lakewood High School in June. But what's happened to her school is nothing to celebrate.

THE SERIES Today: Conflicts, errors and low test scores make Lakewood one of the poorest-performing districts in the state. Monday: A retired principal admits he misled parents to keep children with disabilities out of costly special education schools. Tuesday: Attorney Michael Inzelbuch, a power figure in the district for years, was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. Wednesday: Fixing Lakewood won't be easy or quick. Shelteak, 17, has had three different principals in four years.

A breakdown in student discipline reached such alarming levels earlier this year that the school board hired armed, retired police officers to restore order. In Shelteak's junior year, 63 percent of her class failed the math portion of the state's mandatory assessment test. Little wonder, since state monitors discovered that students hadn't been provided with algebra and geometry textbooks they could bring home. Teachers were passing kids regardless of how poor their grades were, the monitors also found, evidence of what they called "a culture of low expectations." "When I talk to my friends in Jackson, it's like they're doing college courses while we're doing things, we feel, at like an elementary level," said Shelteak, who hopes to enlist in the Air Force after she graduates, provided she can boost her score on the entrance exam. For more than a decade, the school district has been in a fiscal, political, educational and cultural crisis one that costs taxpayers more than $100 million a year.

What's more, the district has no clear path to success, the Asbury Park Press found. As a result, Shelteak and thousands of other students have effectively been cheated out of an education that should have rewarded them with the skills and knowledge they need to help build succesful careers and lives. The educational climate and quality of the schools have been a perennial worry for parents like Felicia Rodriguez. She says it's a relief knowing that the youngest of her three children is almost through her senior year at the high school. "I'm scared for my daughter being there.

She's the last one, thank God," said Rodriguez, 50. "I feel sorry for the younger ones who are there." Former elementary school teacher Carol Cousins, who retired last year after 36 years in the district, can't understand why a booming town of more than 100,000 people can't provide enough textbooks, adequate classroom space and other basic resources for a public school district of 5,600 kids. See LAKEWOOD, Page B2 MORE ON THE WEB Visit www.app.com schoolsinlakewood Tuesday for videos, links to databases of salaries and student performance results, and downloadable files of school budgets and spending. for all your business and personal banking needs. 3evioCcTSTnclLZg: THERE'S ONLY ONE BANK Garden State Community Bank A Division of New York Community Bank Member FDIC Bayville, 340 US Highway 9 South Brick, 688 Route 70 Farmingdale, 77 Main Street Freehold, 101 Barkalow Avenue Howell, 5149 Route 9 North Marlboro, 471 County Road 520 Matawan, 168-170 Main Street Morganville, 473 Route 79 Old Bridge, 3665 Route 9 North Old Bridge, 1043 US Highway 9 North Sayreville, 77 Main Street Toms River, 916 Fischer Boulevard -786-6560 www.myGSCB.com Wim TBI TU "Top performing large thrift in the U.S.

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