Readers' Scoop: Michael Inzelbuch: Friend or Foe? Menace or Mensch?

(See attached documents). (The Lakewood Scoop has authenticated this letter by speaking to the parents who wrote and signed it. The original letter is on file. The opinions expressed here are the letter writers’ own, and the facts presented here have not been independently verified by TLS. We invite further comments from all sides of this vital community issue and reserve the right to similarly authenticate same before publication.)

Well, it really depends who you ask. Let us be totally candid right up-front. As parents of a child who for years has been denied essential—and desperately needed—special services by Michael Inzelbuch (personally), we have a negiah. A very kosher negiah. We have our child’s interest at heart. And yes, we have an agenda. We want to expose and end what we consider Lakewood’s dirtiest secret. The systematic injustice done by this individual, not only to our child, but to hundreds of other children with special needs in our kehilla. Children—who but for Michael Inzelbuch—would have a bright future as full-fledged members of our society. Michael Inzelbuch, attorney and special education consultant to the Lakewood Board of Education, (BOE), caused quite a stir recently. As widely reported in here on TLS and in the general press, he managed to dupe the Board into giving him a 25% salary increase, from $200 to $250 per hour. So far, 3 members of the Board admitted they did not know what they were voting on when his contract was renewed. Despite drawing public rebuke and editorial criticism from the Asbury Park Press, Mr. Inzelbuch has still not given-up his ill-gotten raise. Nor did he even disclose his true total compensation. The Board and the public are still totally in the dark. That recent tumult has prompted us to expose some less well-known, but far more serious issues. Before last month’s BOE elections, the Lakewood School District published and mailed-out a puff piece, filled cover-to-cover with self-praise for its non-public Special Education services, (Remember, MI is the District’s nonpublic special ed consultant). Was this a clever set-up for his ill-gotten “raise”, or just well-timed, thinly-disguised electioneering propaganda—at taxpayer expense? What caught our attention was an odd item in this “newsletter”. In a profusely complimentary letter, the principal of Orchos Chaim went overboard to praise the special ed services provided through the District to our mosdos, (see item reproduced in photos). (Continued here)