East Ramapo: Lottery set for full-day kindergarten
Fifth- and sixth-grade band and orchestra will be added as well as fifth-grade art and sixth-grade chorus.
Schools Superintendent Deborah Wortham announced Wednesday that a lottery would be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the administration building, 105 South Madison Ave. in Spring Valley, to fill 156 seats for the full-day kindergarten classes. School starts Wednesday, Sept. 7.
Wortham also announced that fifth- and sixth-grade band and orchestra will be added this academic year as well as fifth-grade art and sixth-grade chorus.
“Additional classes as well as student and teacher resources will mean a higher quality education for students throughout the district,” Wortham said in a statement released by the district announcing the 2016-2017 school budget, approved by voters in May, had been enacted.
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This year, Kakiat Elementary School will be transformed into a STEAM (Science, Technology Engineering, Arts and Math) academy and Lime Kiln Elementary will become an American history-focused academy school.
“As the school year progresses, we will continue to work with the monitors, elected officials and the community to turn East Ramapo into a model district," Wortham said.
The district is working with the new state-appointed monitor, Charles Szuberla, to set the date for a public hearing to get community feedback into allocating the state-provided $3 million for district programs. Following the hearing and with guidance from the monitor, the board will then adopt an expenditure plan and submit it to the state education commissioner.
But Andrew Mandel of the advocacy group Strong East Ramapo said the hearing was overdue and criticized the limitations on the full-day kindergarten offering.
"The May budget was a modest improvement from the past, but we could have started the year with so much more if the district and state monitor had gotten their act together and held the hearing for the $3 million in state aid," Mandel said. "Parents should not be left in limbo about their work schedules because of indecision at the district or state level, and of course no child should have to win a lottery to attend full-day kindergarten.
School board President Yehuda Weissmandl said students would benefit greatly from the added classes and opportunities.
"We are in a better fiscal condition now than in years past and we again thank the (state) Legislature for providing additional funding that will help us moving forward," Weissmandl said in a statement.
Spring Valley NAACP activist Oscar Cohen said he was pleased that plans for the upcoming school year focused on beginning to restore educational quality. But he said given the late notice, the NAACP was concerned there would be parents who would be uniformed of the kindergarten lottery.
"Residents need to be reassured that, as the year unfolds, all budgetary decisions made will focus on improving instructional programs for our public school children which will require much greater transparency than has previously existed," Cohen said.
In recent years, the school board has cut hundreds of staff positions and eliminated programs including full-day kindergarten.
In late June, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into effect a law giving East Ramapo more oversight, along with $3 million in aid. The measure followed months of negotiations in Albany over how to best help East Ramapo improve finances and address concerns about alleged mismanagement by school officials.
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