For the first time in decades, the Village of Sloatsburg will not be represented on the Ramapo Central School Board.
Long-serving Ramapo Central School Board member and Sloatsburg resident Thomas Bollatto will be leaving the board when his term expires in May, 2015, which will leave Sloatsburg without BOE representation. Bollatto also serves as Village of Sloatsburg Clerk and Treasurer.
Thomas Bollatto, longtime Sloatsburg Village Clerk and Treasurer, will not run for re-election to the Board of Education. A native of Sloatsburg, Bollatto has served on the Ramapo Central BOE since 1988, serving as both Vice President and President of the BOE during his tenure. Bollatto’s departure leaves Sloatsburg without local representation at the district level for the first time in, well, recent memory, stretching way back.
With Bollatto’s departure, three Ramapo Central board seats will be contested on the Tuesday, May 19, districtwide budget vote. Voters will get to choose between the following board candidates: Theresa DiFalco, Joseph Gravagna, Teresa Monahan, and Clarke Osborn.
Suffern Police Chief Osborn has thrown his hat into the ring to win his way back onto the board from which he resigned just a few short years ago. After a sweeping re-election in 2013, Osborn soon after quietly resigned his seat due to overwhelming personal and professional commitments that also included tense budget hearings. Osborn’s mother’s illness turned out to be one of the primary reasons for stepping away from the BOE — she passed away in May 2014.
Signs of the times. Candidate yard signs are popping up across Suffern, promoting various Ramapo Central School Board candidates.
DiFalco, a local attorney who was also a former Rockland County prosecutor, was an outsider candidate elected in 2012, whereupon, she quickly established herself on the board and is now BOE President. DiFalco has three children in the Ramapo Central School system. Teresa Monahan was first elected to the board in 2005 while this is Gravagna’s second ballot attempt.
Ramapo Central School District Budget Summary
Residents of the Ramapo Central School District will vote Tuesday, May 19, on the proposed 2015-16 school budget. The $131,693,736 budget represents a budget-to-budget increase of 1.01% and a tax levy increase of 1.54%. For more information on the proposed budget,
Also on the ballot is a voter referendum (Proposition 2) on a capital project. Residents will be asked to vote on whether the District may use existing Capital Reserve Fund monies in the amount of $850,000 to replace two athletic turf fields at Suffern Middle School.
This proposed capital project is at no additional cost to taxpayers.
Polls are open from 6am-9pm. Voters must report to their assigned school budget election district.
Cherry Lane Elementary School, 1 Heather Drive, Suffern
Hillburn Administration Building, 45 Mountain Avenue, Hillburn
RP Connor Elementary School, 13 Cypress Road, Suffern
Sloatsburg Elementary School, 11 Second Street, Sloatsburg
Suffern Middle School, 80 Hemion Road, Suffern
