Another Call for a Monitor with Power in East Ramapo

The New York State Board of Regents this morning heard a report called Opportunity Deferred: A Report on the East Ramapo Central School District.

“As illuminated by the Monitors’ work since August 2015, as reported in Henry M. Greenberg’s November 2014 report to the Regents, as documented in the press, and as experienced and voiced by public school families, educators, and community members, the East Ramapo Board of Education has persistently failed to act in the best interests of public school students,” said the report from Dennis Walcott and his team. “Since August, there has been progress in the District, but after years of challenges, including fiscal distress and a failure of public confidence in the public education system in the District, much more time is needed for the District to overcome years of mismanagement and decline.”

Greenberg had told the New York Education Department in November 2014 that he believed some form of state intervention was needed to repair the school system and reverse bad decisions by the East Ramapo Board of Education.

“The district’s finances teeter on the edge of disaster,” Greenberg wrote in his report, East Ramapo: A School District in Crisis.

The district, which includes parts of the communities of New City, Pearl River, Nanuet, Spring Valley, Suffern, New Hempstead, Chestnut Ridge, Monsey and Wesley Hills, has 9,000 students in its schools. However, another 24,000 school-age children live there, and go to private schools—mostly yeshivas.

East Ramapo’s rapidly changing demographics reflect not only the great diversity of East Ramapo but also underlie enduring tensions between the private and public school communities, the new monitors said in today’s report. “Since 2005, members of the private school community have gained a majority of seats on the nine-member Board of Education, and with control of the Board, have remade the District.”

Among the 19 recommendations made by Walcott’s team to the Regents was keeping a monitor in East Ramapo. A monitor with veto power, as recommended by Greenberg back in 2014.

The team also recommended an independent monitor for school board elections and creation of a hiring protocol to ensure that there is a screening process of credentials and appropriate placement for new hires.

The team is led by Walcott, a former New York City schools Chancellor, and includes Monica George-Fields – a school turnaround expert – and John Sipple – a school finance expert.

It was appointed by the State Education Department this summer.

RELATED:

• Beleaguered East Ramapo Schools Chief Leaves
• Parents Threaten to Sue State over East Ramapo if Corrections Aren’t Immediate
• Ninth East Ramapo Protest
• Reactions to New East Ramapo Monitor: Caution, Suspicion, Hope

“The Monitors presented a detailed and thorough report today that provides a blueprint for moving the district forward,” said Assemblyman Kenneth P. Zebrowski. “The report calls for extensive programmatic and structural changes that will fundamentally improve the educational opportunities for students. I am ready to sponsor and fight for any legislation necessary to implement today’s recommendations. Once again, a monitor with veto authority and increased funding are at the heart of the recommendations. Politics should not get in the way of these essential elements of the improvement plan. This issue has now been studied twice with similar findings. We know the problems, let’s implement the solutions.”

Legislation to appoint a monitor with veto power in East Ramapo passed the state Assembly in June but failed in the Senate, where Republican leaders work closely with the private-school and Ultra-Orthodox lobbies.

State Sen. David Carlucci, who saw his efforts to get a law through the state Senate disappear, said, “I thank Monitors Dennis Walcott, Monica George-Fields and John Sipple for their hard work over the past 17 weeks looking at the problems facing East Ramapo. This report is an important step in turning our district around and I look forward to their continued support as we push for needed change.

I will work hard with my colleagues in the Senate to implement the recommendations made in this report, including installing monitors with override power. This will be an uphill fight in the Senate that we cannot afford to lose, and will take the full support of the Monitors, the State Education Department, the Board of Regents and the Governor. Most importantly, the students, parents and teachers of East Ramapo must continue to join me in Albany and make their voices heard so we can pass meaningful legislation. We must continue our advocacy so that every child gets the best education they deserve and move our district in the right direction.”

To view the monitor team’s PowerPoint presentation, click here.