Ramapo Central School District voters have spoken loud and clear and the message was yes — cap that tax.
The proposed RCSD budget of $128 million dollars with a tax levy of 1.99%, which included a number of program and staff cuts, was overwhelming passed by district voters. With vote tally at approximately 1,602-528, the implied consensus is that district residents are in agreement with the Board of Education to hold the line on taxes while the district streamlines the system to meet budget demands.
Several favorite programs are due to be slashed, including summer school, field trips, the Family Resource Center, Homework Club, and all district sponsored outings. Area voters blinked, gulped and voted yes to the cuts.
The idea of busting the state tax cap to fund the schools had vocal support in some areas but at this time district residents appear to have a wait-and-see attitude in terms of how budget cuts might affect Central Ramapo schools.
Maureen Danzig and Clarke Osborn were also returned to office for another term. Danzig’s a district-based special education teacher with Rockland BOCES while Osborn is the popular Chief of Police for the Suffern Police Department.
Osborn told Mareesa Nicosia of LoHud that he’d use his fourth BOE term to continue the board’s efforts to balance the needs of students and taxpayers under the constraints of the tax cap and dwindling state and federal aid.
“We had a very difficult year, but I’m glad that the public gave Maureen and I another chance to show that we are sincerely committed to this district, the safety, well-being and education of the children,” Osborn said.
Pushing state elected officials to help restore school aid to the district is also a central goal, Osborn said.
Meanwhile, in quarrelsome East Ramapo School District, residents voted down the proposed school budget for the third consecutive year.
Voters and school board candidates waited into the wee hours for results to come in on the nearly $210 million East Ramapo budget proposal that was right at the upper reaches of the state tax levy limit. The vote tallies for East Rampo were released early Wednesday morning, hours after the other districts.
According to East Ramapo district clerk, the budget vote was 4,895 yes to 5,400 no. The nearly $210 million proposal would have cut some 60 school positions, plenty of programs and raised taxes appromixately 3 percent.
The budget vote means the school board will put the budget before voters a second time, with June 19 as the deadline for the second go round.
The contentious East Ramapo school board election involved two distinct factions squaring off. A threesome reportedly supported by an Ultra Orthodox anti-tax organization won — new board members include Bernard Charles, MaraLuz Corado and Pierre Germain, who each won three-year-terms on the nine-member board. The trio defeated a group that ran under the Save Our Schools Coalition banner and included Eustache Clerveaux, Robert Forrest and Margaret Tuck.
Forrest said that the selection of the new board members won’t change the dynamics of the contentious district, which has some 9,000 public school students and 22,000 students who attend private schools but receive some form of public assistance.
“They won – the candidates Corado, Germain and Charles have won and they will be doing the bidding of the private school community,” said Forrest, who spent the evening at the district offices awaiting election results.
