'Opportunity Deferred': 19 reforms for E. Ramapo
ALBANY - A three-person board that has spent five months studying the troubles in the East Ramapo school district on Monday offered 19 reforms in a report titled, "Opportunity Deferred: A Report on the East Ramapo."
The panel, headed by former New York City chancellor Dennis Walcott, presented ts findings Monday to the Board of Regents, detailing how the district has been beset with turmoil and poor management. The Board of Regents unanimously approved the recommendations.
Among its recommendations is to urge the state Legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to install a state monitor with power to veto the school board's decisions.
Other recommendations include a direct source of state aid, an independent election monitor for school board elections, ensuring that the parent of a public-school student serves on the school board and reforming the district's busing policies.
(Complete list of recommendations plus slide-show summary at end of this article)
East Ramapo school board 'surprised' by panel's recommendations
'Opportunity Deferred': 19 reforms for E. Ramapo
Editorial: East Ramapo needs a monitor with veto power
East Ramapo: Monitors' report exposes problems with no immediate cure
Previous coverage: East Ramapo monitor team reports to Regents
Previous coverage: Five topics monitors may address at Board of Regents meeting
The district has about 32,000 students, but roughly 24,000 of them attend private schools, mostly Orthodox Jewish yeshivas.
"As a result of this confluence of factors, the tensions in East Ramapo have grown into a chasm, full of anger and mistrust, and the District's students have continued to suffer the effects," the report states.
The school board is controlled by Orthodox Jews, who have been accused of directing resources to the private schools at the expense of the district's 8,000 public-school students, who are mainly black and Hispanic.
Reacting to the recommendations, the East Ramapo school board said it's "surprised" at the veto-power-monitor recommendation, saying that had not been part of the discussions. Yehuda Weissmandl, the board's president, said the board has "worked diligently over the last year" to improve the troubled district and believed that it and the panel's leader, Dennis Walcott, were on the same page.
Weissmandl said the push for a monitor would only "reprise the divisions and strife" that the sides have tried to close as they fight over the resources for public and private-school students.
In their report, the monitors note that over the past decade the private-school population in East Ramapo has increased by 43 percent. Meanwhile, the public schools mainly compromise poor minority students: 84 percent are economically disadvantaged and 29 percent are English language learners.
"These rapidly changing demographics reflect not only the great diversity of East Ramapo but also underlie enduring tensions between the private and public school communities," the report states.
The panel offered an hourlong presentation on the troubles at the district, saying that the situation is unique in New York. It said about $12 million to $15 million in additional state aid would help the district, as well as the busing reforms: Only New York City buses more kids each day to school, the group said.
Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia said she would expect the three-person board to continue its work as the recommendations are enacted.
But the largest one, a monitor with veto power, will need approval from the state Legislature. Senate Republicans have opposed a monitor with veto power over the school board, so the sides will fight it out again next year during the six-month legislative session.
"I will work hard with my colleagues in the Senate to implement the recommendations made in this report, including installing monitors with override power," Sen. David Carlucci, D-Clarkstown, Rockland County, said in a statement. "This will be an uphill fight in the Senate that we cannot afford to lose."
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Recommendations
Here are the recommendations from an East Ramapo advisory panel Monday to the state Board of Regents:
- Continue monitors in the district and pursue legislation for increased authority, including a monitor with veto power.
- Appoint an independent election monitor for school board elections.
- Create a comprehensive and community inclusive process to develop a new bond issue for purposes of making much needed capital improvements.
- Pursue legislation to ensure representation of public school concerns on the board of education by providing that in each election cycle, all candidates for at least one of the seats must be parents of children attending public schools selected in a local process by other public school parents.
- Pursue legislation to expand required training for the district's board members.
- Convene meetings with a human rights expert.
- Rethink use of Title I resources.
- Provide students with full-day kindergarten classes.
- Continue investigating the feasibility of streamlining grade configurations and start times.
- Continue progress toward enrichment of academic options for all students.
- Reform and enhance professional development opportunities for staff.
- Create a hiring protocol that includes specific departments in the hiring process to ensure that there is a screening process of credentials and appropriate placement for new hires.
- Streamline school district operations to encourage efficiency and transparency.
- Explore longer-term transportation contracts with public approval.
- Explore changes to bus routes and policies to maximize efficiency.
- Review policies and procedures for special education and English language learner programs.
- Reinstate support services for all students where needed.
- Ensure responsible local contributions in the district budget.
- The state needs to provide dedicated support to the district.