The NY Newsday reports: The Lawrence school budget passed last night by a wide margin, capping a divisive campaign that positioned parents of public school children against parents of children who attend private schools.

With most votes counted, the district’s Web site gave the vote as 5,527 in favor, 3,191 opposed, and a district employee said Wednesday morning that while those numbers might change slightly, the outcome of the vote will not.

Three seats on the Board of Education were open, and two slates of candidates ran: Andrew Levey, Pamela Greenbaum and Maribel Cancelliere, all of whom have sent their children to public schools, and Solomon Blisko, David Sussman and Nahum Marcus, two of whom have children in private schools. Sussman sent his children to public school.

At Lawrence Middle School, cars jostled for one of the few parking spots outside the polls. One Lawrence parent, who did not want to give his name, said he felt campaigners unfairly criticized Orthodox Jewish community members — many of whom send their children to private yeshivas — for being uncommitted to public schools.

One voter, who also didn’t want to give his name, said he felt that Orthodox Jews were taking over the school board and slowly dismantling the public schools. “There’s a divide, I think, but it’s really between the religious and everybody else,” the North Woodmere father of public-school children said. “It’s going to be a board where none of the people go to school.”

(Reprinted from Newsday)