NYCLU Appeals to State over East Ramapo School Trustee 'Oversight'

The bizarre tale of East Ramapo school trustees forgetting to swear in a newly-elected black woman to the Board of Education has spurred a challenge from the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The NYCLU filed an appeal with the New York Education Department Thursday over the issue, asking state officials to reinstate Sabrina Charles-Pierre for the full two-year term to which she was elected in May.

The board leadership had annulled the election of Charles-Pierre — who is the only female member on the board dominated by orthodox Jews, and who ran unopposed in school district elections in May for the remaining two years of a vacated seat — because she had not been sworn in within 30 days as required by state law. They said it was an oversight.

After community protests, they said they would ask state officials to waive the requirement.

“The East Ramapo School Board has singled out Sabrina Charles-Pierre—the only woman on the nine-member board, and the only board member who ran on a slate of representing the interests of the school district’s public school children,” said NYCLU Senior Staff Attorney Molly Kovel. “It’s impossible to separate this action from the discrimination that continues to plague East Ramapo.”

Annulling her election was not the only peculiar move by the East Ramapo school trustees this spring. They also appointed Joe Chajmovicz, a man no one in the public school community had heard of, to fill the term of Monsey resident Yakov Engel, who resigned in May.

Engel had cited work and personal responsibilities. His resignation was announced around the time of the budget and board election, so it was a post that could be filled by appointment.

Now it appears that Chajmovicz may not live at the address listed for him by the school district. Protesters said they met people at that house who were renters. The district has refused requests from The Journal News for other contact information for Chajmovicz.

NYCLU officials said the case of Charles-Pierre was the latest example of the board’s dysfunction and consistent disempowerment of the school district’s largely Black and Latino public school community.

That community had actively supported her candidacy, NYCLU officials said, pointing to a recent State Education Department investigation that found that the East Ramapo School Board had unfairly prioritized the needs of Orthodox Jewish students who attend private and religious schools at the expense of Black and Latino students who attend the district’s public schools.

“Black and Latino children make up over 90 percent of public school students in East Ramapo, but the school board, dominated by the supporters of the Orthodox Jewish community, consistently shortchanges them in favor of white students who attend religious and other private schools,” said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman in an announcement about the filing. “The board has now ignored the will of the voters and truncated the term of the only woman elected to the board – a Black educator who campaigned on a platform to represent the interests of the public school community. The dysfunction, disempowerment and discrimination in East Ramapo schools has to end.”

There are about 9,000 public school students in East Ramapo, 90 percent of whom are black or Latino, while about 24,000 children attend local yeshivas. Since 2005, the board, which is controlled by Orthodox Jewish men, cut 445 public school jobs, reduced kindergarten to a half-day and eliminated many extracurricular programs from the public schools, according to an Education Department report. At the same time, the board has increased spending on out-of-district special-education classes and busing to private schools while also spending the district’s precious resources to aggressively fight lawsuits.

As a result of these longstanding issues, a series of independent monitors have been appointed by the State Education Commissioner to oversee the district — the most recent has just begun work.

Charles Szuberla, a former Deputy Commissioner who served SED for 29 years before his retirement in late 2015, will be supported by Dr. John W. Sipple, a Cornell University professor who continues in his role as financial monitor.

The NYCLU’s appeal is on behalf of Oscar Cohen, an NAACP official who lives in the district.

Cohen voted for Charles-Pierre during the annual school board election in May. Charles-Pierre had been first appointed to the board in October 2015 to fill a vacancy left after a previous trustee resigned. In May Charles-Pierre successfully ran to finish out the remainder of the term, which was set to expire in 2018.

But after its July 26 meeting, the board announced that Charles-Pierre had not been sworn in on time and could not serve out the rest of the two-year term. Instead, the board appointed Charles-Pierre to serve until the next annual election in May 2017.

The NYCLU argues that by removing Charles-Pierre from her properly elected seat, it overturned the election results and rendered Cohen’s vote meaningless. The board also arbitrarily decided that Charles-Pierre’s term started on a different day than any other person who was elected this year.

“The only woman of color on the board was denied her elected seat because the board misread the law and shirked its administrative responsibilities,” Cohen said. “It is essential that the Commissioner of Education correct this perversion of justice and restore Sabrina Charles Pierre’s duly elected seat.”

SCREENSHOT: East Ramapo School Administration Building/ google maps