As newly elected Rockland County Executive Ed Day prepares to take office, he’s gathering together his staff and reminding some constituents about past promises.
This past Friday the 13th, Day went public with a biting letter sent to NY State Education Commissioner John King regarding the East Ramapo School District and that Board of Education’s failure to make any movement to rid itself of Minerva & D’Agostino, the Long Island, NY law firm that represents the district.
Scroll back to July and the East Ramapo School District office parking lot, just after a bizarre BOE meeting where Chris Kirby, representing both D’Agostino and East Ramapo, repeatedly baited district resident Peggy Hatton as she addressed the board. Board members sat passively as the incident escalated. Kirby then punctuated the encounter with a profanity-laced parking lot encounter directed at district parents and activists.
Kirby’s actions were captured on video and that video quickly went viral. District residents rallied about the board’s actions, with sentiments favoring the ouster of the unpopular law firm. The East Ramapo budget crisis was perhaps at the root of the district contention, as the BOE recommended steep program and personnel cuts.
“Mr. Chris Kirby repeatedly engaged in a disgusting tirade during a regular Board of Education meeting and in the presence of the entire school board,” said Day’s letter, which went to both the Education Commissioner and current East Ramapo School Board President Yehuda Wiessmandl. “His actions included belittling a woman who was actually being complimentary to school staff.”
(Raw Video: contains graphic language)
“His later action in the parking lot, where a video indicated he laid in wait for citizens attending the meeting to leave,” Day’s letter continued, “included engaging in physically threatening and unbelievably crude behavior that included cursing a woman, using…words belittling her weight, appearance, and even describing female genitalia. In short, he was totally out of control.”
Day’s letter to Commissioner King also questioned D’Agostino principal Albert D’Agostino, who in March was caught on video at a school board meeting berating and intimidating former district student Lorenzo Labitigan while, again, the board watched in silence.
In early July of this year, after meeting behind closed doors about the Kirby incident, East Ramapo School Board President Weissmandl announced that the district would “transition to other legal representation.”
To date, the D’Agostino firm is still on the district’s payroll as its lead council.
“I find it insulting to our community that six months later, tax dollars are still being paid to this law firm” Day wrote, adding:
There is no place in this community for actions such as the ones described and well documented, and the failure of the East Ramapo School Board to follow up on its assurances to the community are wholly unacceptable. I urge you to take whatever steps you deem appropriate to ensure that the law firm of Minerva & D’Agostino is, in fact, discharged from their duties forthwith.
