Rockland County, NY – Monitor Assigned To Oversee E. Ramapo School District Says “Action” Is State Education Board’s Only Goal

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    FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2015 file photo, former New York City Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott addresses a community meeting in Suffern, N.Y., after being appointed monitor in the East Ramapo school district. (AP Photo/Jim Fitzgerald, File)Rockland County, NY – Just two and one-half weeks after stepping into the job as monitor in overseeing the East Ramapo school district, and Former Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education Dennis Walcott says that the state Education Board’s only goal with regard to the controversial district is one of “action,” and that it “will not accept anything else.”

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    LOHUD.com (http://lohud.us/1Jyy36O) reports that in a Tuesday interview, Walcott and team-member Monica George-Fields made their first public comments since arriving on the scene, addressing several issues that are tantamount to the situation that has resulted in charges by public school parents that funding is being mishandled by East Ramapo’s predominately Orthodox-led school board.

    While stopping short of using the term “forensic audit,” Walcott admitted that his team will be taking a “very deep look at the finances of the district.”

    “The use of money is the key,” Walcott said.

    When asked about claims that a lack of state funds is a key to East Ramapo’s problems, George-Fileds said, “There are a lot of districts strapped for cash. Lack of money and low student achievement do not always go hand in hand.”


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    9 Comments
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    8 years ago

    I’ve never seen such a strangely worded article.

    Make’s one think that the writer had some type of agenda which did not included staying just to the facts.

    8 years ago

    This guy had his mind made up before he even showed up for work. Not even an appearance of fairness here.

    OyGevald
    OyGevald
    8 years ago

    It’s very hard to make sense of the complaint. The claim of unfairness is that the board members themselves don’t send their children to these schools so they don’t really care about the lack of extra curricular activities etc. Since when must a school provide anything other than a teacher for each grade, covering reading, writing, arithmetic, social studies etc.

    8 years ago

    He should be MATZLIACH in his efforts!

    Abba_S
    Abba_S
    8 years ago

    I have nothing against having a against a Forensic Audit but it wouldn’t solve the problem. The two services the Frum community use from the Board of Education is Special ED. & School Busing. Both of these services are mandatory.

    You can complain about the cost of special ed but in order to have special ed in yeshivas the students parent had to go before an administrative judge and prove that the yeshiva’s special education program was more beneficial for the student.

    The monitor or his lawyer can go before the the judge and try to convince him that the public school program is the best program. The problem is the cost involved. For example if they lose the case they have to pay the parent legal expenses also.

    As soon as the state takes over, the budget is frozen because you need the board and the community to approve the school budget since neither one is going to approve it, it’s not going to pass. The last two budgets had tax increases.

    The state will have to contribute more. Also since the state is taking over the board the taxpayers may claim no taxation without representation and since the state denied them representation they shouldn’t pay property taxes.