Last-Minute Push for East Ramapo School Monitor

The advocates for East Ramapo Oversight gathered in Albany, Wednesday, with just five days left before the end of the 2015 legislative session, to urge Assembly Speaker Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Flanagan to bring a bill authorizing a state monitor for the school district to the Assembly and Senate floor for immediate passage.

They’re among many voices calling on lawmakers to approve the plan.

State intervention was recommended by state-appointed fiscal monitor Hank Greenberg, who told the New York Education Department in November 2014 that he believed some form of state intervention was needed to repair school system and reverse bad decisions by the East Ramapo Board of Education.

“The district’s finances teeter on the edge of disaster,” he 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.

Opponents include the East Ramapo Board of Education and the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, which released a video Monday on the issue.

• SEE: Makers of “Jew in Rockland” Video Oppose East Ramapo Monitor

The bill’s sponsor, Assemblymember Ellen Jaffee(D-Suffern), co-sponsor Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski (D-New City), and Senate Sponsor, Senator David Carlucci, held a press conference today, joined by Rockland County Executive Ed Day, representatives from the Alliance for Quality Education, NAACP, Reform Jewish Voice of New York, Rockland Clergy for Social Justice, and Strong East Ramapo.

The American Jewish Committee and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism see the bill that would authorize the State Education Department to appoint a state monitor to oversee the District, as a positive step in improving community relations, rejecting insinuations of anti-Semitism, said the bill’s sponsors.

Speakers also outlined the urgency of the situation in East Ramapo underscored by the June 5 Appeals Court ruling that halted the school board’s multi-million dollar lawsuit against the State Education Department to allow out-of-code special education placements for private school students.

On his Facebook page, Clarktown Town Councilman George Hoehmann said, “Very productive meeting with Leader Flanagan regarding the ERSD Oversight Monitor Bill. We stressed that this monitor is critical to getting the school district back on the right track and putting our kids first.

“Senator Flanagan said that he will bringing this important issue to the Leaders Meeting, being held later today. He also stated that he would speak to the Governor about it. It’s the first time it’s being discussed at that level, so our delegation is hopeful that we can get this bill passed.”

In addition to the lobbying effort, Rockland County Republicans wrote an open letter letter to state lawmakers that was published Tuesday in the Rockland Voice.

“It must be noted that there have been many reports of reluctance and outright opposition to this bill by other Republican Assemblymen and State Senators,” the letter said in part. “We, as representatives of the Republican Party in Rockland County where the East Ramapo School District is located, want to make it very clear to our fellow party members that we fully and unequivocally support this bill to place a monitor in the East Ramapo School District. We implore the members of our party who have a vote in this matter to put aside any and all political concerns and to act in the best interests of the children in the East Ramapo School District. This should not, and cannot be a partisan issue.”

The monitor plan has also been endorsed by the Assembly Education Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

A recent NY Times Op-Ed by Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and David Sciarra, Executive Director of the Education Law Center, also urged the legislature to pass the bill and protect “the civil rights of a community of overwhelmingly low-income minority children.”

Assembly co-sponsors/multi-sponsors are Abinanti, Arroyo, Aubry, Barron, Benedetto, Bichotte, Crespo, Clark, Dinowitz, Fahy, Galef, Glick, Gottfried, Hooper, Jean-Pierre, Lavine, Mayer, O’Donnell, Otis, Paulin, Pichardo, Raia, Rivera, Rodriguez, Seawright, Skoufis, Simon, Solages, and Stirpe. Senate Co-sponsors are Avella, Hoylman, Krueger, Larkin, Latimer, Montgomery, Sanders, Savino, and Valesky.

PHOTO: Clarkstown Supervisor Alex Gromack and Councilwoman Shirley Lasker joined Senator David Carlucci and Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski in Albany today to support the NYS Assembly and Senate bill implementing a state fiscal monitor of the East Ramapo Central School District/courtesy