Editorial: More cheers than boos for East Ramapo monitor

The crowd that gathered Thursday afternoon in Rockland Community College's main theater alternately cheered and booed New York State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia as she described the state's plan to bring a monitor team, led by former New York City schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, to East Ramapo.

There were more cheers than boos among the hundreds gathered to hear about the monitor plan. That's a good sign — people in the East Ramapo community need hope, and the state monitor team needs cooperation from all parts of this deeply divided community. Still, the new monitor, with no veto power or deep access, has been correctly described as a step but not a solution. At least not yet.

East Ramapo, once a leading district in Rockland, has suffered deep program and staff cuts. The school board, run by members of the Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish community who use private yeshiva schools for their children, has slashed budgets and mismanaged severely limited resources. Public-school parents accuse the board of favoring the yeshivas at the cost of public schools. A 2014 report by a state-appointed fiscal monitor echoed such concerns. The public-schoolchildren of East Ramapo, who are mostly black and brown, often from immigrant families, attend class in dilapidated buildings, get limited access to art and music education, sports and extra-curricular activities and struggle to get enough core classes completed to graduate on time.

After a bill to install a monitor with strong oversight powers failed to pass the Legislature last session, Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch pledged action in East Ramapo. Regent Judith Johnson, a district resident and longtime educator, has also worked diligently to keep the spotlight on East Ramapo's woes. Johnson has been a quiet champion of East Ramapo's public-schoolchildren.

Time will tell if the monitor team can offer the solution East Ramapo so desperately needs. Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern, the sponsor of the state oversight bill, and co-sponsor Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski, D-New City, expressed enthusiasm for the monitor team. The monitor's findings could bring remedies, could fuel a new legislative push for oversight or could arm the state Education Department with information to take more aggressive action. Or nothing could result. We hope, and believe, the latter won't occur.

Walcott and Elia made clear that Walcott's team — which includes Monica George-Fields and John W. Sipple.— would have a direct line to Elia. Citing his team's experience, Walcott assured people that "we know when something stinks." He promised to be a presence in the district several days a week, at schools, at community meetings, in barbershops.

Walcott also said he wants to meet with all communities. They should take him up on that — hearing from the various communities is the only way the monitor team can understand the complex needs in East Ramapo.

Aid with oversight

Tension between the public-school community and East Ramapo school board has built for years. In East Ramapo, two-thirds of school-age children attend private schools, mostly yeshivas. Every school board meeting fills with protesters demanding state intervention and the ouster of the board and superintendent. Several lawsuits against board members continue to percolate through the courts.

Tight budgets – needed to win support of a powerful bloc vote that the Orthodox community wields — have led to deep faculty and staff cuts and slashed academic and extra-curricular programs. Public-school advocates accuse the board of ignoring the needs of minority children and favoring the private-school community. School district leaders say a lopsided state aid formula drains the district.

Amid the growing tension, the state appointed a fiscal monitor, Hank Greenberg, to delve into the sources of East Ramapo's troubles. In a 2014 report, Greenberg cited significant problems with the district’s financial management, as well as a need for increased state aid. In his report, Greenberg made clear that aid shouldn’t come until oversight is provided.

Local state legislators used the Greenberg report to craft the oversight bill that died at the end of the 2014 legislative session.

Steps forward, back

There has been a renewed push by the East Ramapo school board to address some of the issues that rile public-school advocates. But they have been too small, too late and often overshadowed by new missteps.

For example, in July, the school board finally replaced a high-priced Long Island-based law firm that gained a vile reputation for its attorneys berating public-school parents and students. After a profanity-laced tirade went viral in 2013, the school board promised to fire the law firm. It took two years to fulfill that. Meanwhile, the board continues to pay other lawyers sky-high fees. Parent activists recently added another lawsuit over such payments with public monies.

Anger continues to brew over Superintendent Joel Klein’s 2014 comments that older immigrant students were damaging the district’s graduation rate. He has apologized, but protesters – who fill every school board meeting – continue to call for his ouster. The board is seeking a new superintendent; Klein is in the last year of his contract and recently declined to seek a renewal.

Amid all these steps, the State Education Department issued several highly critical reports in late June that said the district failed English Language Learners on many levels, and gave the district the lowest possible marks for its staffing and curriculum management.

Is this monitor team — which promises real-time reporting to the education commissioner, but has no real power to immediately act — really what the district needs? The political reality is that the state monitor bill failed, and shows little chance of winning support in the Senate. So it is the closest tool at hand.

If this monitor is done right, though, it could lead to stronger school district. That could be through better guidance for a school board that mishandles and misunderstands its job. Or it could serve as the linchpin to passing real oversight, with teeth, for a troubled district that seems to fail to deliver a quality public education at every turn. Or, as Elia said, it could lead to direct state action. Either way, let's hope this works, because the children of East Ramapo have waited too long for help that never seems to arrive.