Categorized | Featured, Local News

East Ramapo Monitor Bill Gains Support, Passes Assembly

Posted on 11 June 2015 by Editor

The East Ramapo School District monitor issue has been held up as a matter of “fairness” by some and called “undemocratic” by others. One segment of the East Ramapo community contends the district is woefully underfunded by the state due to its population of students with special needs, while the rebuttal to that argument contends that East Ramapo school funds have been funneled toward private religious schools.

Many issues related to East Ramapo, and unique to Rockland County itself, took center stage Thursday on the floor of the New York Assembly in Albany — with additional glare from the national spotlight.

During a three-hour floor debate, members discussed, sometimes heatedly, bill #A5355 co-sponsored by Assemblymembers Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern, Ken Zebrowski, D-New City and Senator David Carlucci, D-Clarkstown, Rockland County, which calls for a monitor with veto powers over the Board of Education to oversee and help manage the East Ramapo School District.

The bill passed by a surprisingly large margin, 80-59, given the contention, intense lobbying and divisiveness leading up to the vote. The bill next heads to the senate floor, where senate leader William J. Larkin Jr., R-C-Cornwall-on-Hudson, already has his hands full with two bills related to Orange County’s effort to gain some oversight over the Town of Monroe Village Kiryas Joel petitions to annex 500+ acres that would nearly double the size of the Hasidic Satmar stronghold.

East Ramapo sends a number of special education students to the Kiryas Joel for classes.

The ERSD board has been charged with favoring funding private education, primarily religious yeshivas, over public school programs. Additionally, the district continues to retain the controversial law firm Minerva & D’Agostino, that once saw principal Albert D’Agostino aggressively confront and berate a former East Ramapo student speaking at a public board meeting.

ERincident That exchange was caught on video as was the notorious exchange by Minerva & D’Agostino Attorney Chris Kirby with a group of parents in the district’s parking lot. Kirby’s parking lot tirade helped inflame passions in the district over board budget actions and partially sparked wider community involvement that eventually led to the NY state assembly floor and Thursday’s monitor vote.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email