East Ramapo Rally Against School Board

Angry at the East Ramapo school trustees' recent actions annulling the election of one board member and appointing to the board a stranger to the public school community, several of the advocacy groups have started action.

Yehuda Weissmandl, the president of the Board of Education, which has been widely distrusted by the public school community, announced at the end of July that Trustee Sabrina Charles-Pierre had not been sworn in 30 days after the election. Therefore she technically was not a board member and therefore the other school trustees annulled her election.

Then the board appointed Joe Chajmovicz to the board, instead of one of the others who had run for election.

"The board president claims that he forgot that Sabrina needed to be sworn in within 30 days after she was elected, which is required when an election is to fill a vacancy. During the past five years there have been several elections to fill vacancies, and the process of swearing in within 30 days was never forgotten. Both board president Weissmandl and trustee Grossman were elected to fill vacancies in 2014, and both were sworn in within 30 days," pointed out Steve White of The Power of 10.

Strong East Ramapo started a petition calling on Weissmandl to resign. The petition has gathered more than 1,000 signatures. According to the petition organizers:

It is unacceptable that Sabrina Charles-Pierre does not get to complete the full term to which she was elected due to a supposed "administrative oversight." At such a tenuous moment in the district's history, where the interests of public school families are not represented by the majority of board members governing their schools, the board ought to be demonstrating extreme vigilance, rather than carelessness, in protecting the public interest. If there is no legal remedy to honor the results of the last election, this episode left unchecked creates an unacceptable precedent. There must be recourse.

Therefore, as the leader of the board, Board President Yehuda Weissmandl ought to be held accountable for negligence that voided the votes of the electorate. Short of restoring the two-year term of Sabrina Charles-Pierre, we call for Mr. Weissmandl to resign his post.

Since the petition started, school board officials have written to the State Education Department, asking that Charles-Pierre be allowed to serve the full two years, The Journal News reports.

Protesters have not stood down. They have called a rally at the next board meeting, which is Tuesday.
The rally will start at 7PM at the East Ramapo District Offices, 105 S. Madison Ave, Spring Valley NY.

PHOTO: screengrab from Strong East Ramapo petition page