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East Ramapo wants to cut NAACP legal fees to $1, if not teachers could be fired

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“NAACP lawyers say the East Ramapo school district owes them $4.3 million for winning a voting rights lawsuit decided in May.

The district says the tab should be $1.

If forced to pay the full award, the district might have to fire some 50 teachers, administrators, psychologists and others in a mostly-minority district already facing $5.4 million in unanticipated costs from the Covid-19 pandemic, interim district superintendent Raymond Giamartino says. [Read more…]

Appeals court backs NAACP in East Ramapo voting rights challenge

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“A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a lower court decision declaring East Ramapo’s method for electing its school board violated the Voting Rights Act.

The lower court decision handed a victory to the NAACP in its decade-long battle to wrest board control away from a white, Orthodox Jewish voting bloc.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the East Ramapo school district’s claim that policy preferences like lower taxes – not race – had led to school boards dominated by Orthodox Jewish candidates.

They noted the nine-member board has pursued policies contrary to the interests of the the district’s 11,000 public-school students, nearly all of whom are Black or Latino. [Read more…]

Airmont, Central UTA settle lawsuit, dropping discrimination claims as school can expand

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“The village has agreed to review a Hasidic Jewish school’s expansion plans, after settling a federal civil rights lawsuit which claimed the village discriminated against and blocked the project.

Under the agreement reached in U.S. District Court, Central United Talmudical Academy of Monsey gets a promise that its updated expansion plans will be reviewed in a timely manner by the village land-use boards, while the village gets the school’s promise to follow village procedures.

Airmont also is relieved of a legal burden. The village still faces a federal lawsuit from a coalition of the congregations and civil action by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan. The village previously lost two cases involving discriminatory zoning blocking residential houses of worship and dormitory housing involving Hasidic and Orthodox Jews since the village’s 1991 incorporation. [Read more…]

Ramapo residents who stole millions from school tech program face prison recommendations

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“Federal prosecutors are urging a judge to sentence six Ramapo residents to prison for their involvement in stealing millions of dollars from a federal program designed to provide computer technology to underprivileged students.

Peretz Klein and his wife, Susan Klein, both of Spring Valley; and Monsey residents Simon Goldbrenner, Moshe Schwartz, Ben Klein, Sholem Steinberg and Aron Melber all entered guilty pleas to conspiracy charges in February.

Sentencing had been delayed from June due to the coronavirus pandemic and is expected in mid-January, according to a memorandum submitted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan. A hearing is likely after defense attorneys file their sentencing memorandums with the court. [Read more…]

‘Education equivalency’: State looks again at keeping tabs on private schools, including yeshivas

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“The New York State Education Department is again looking at how to enforce state law requiring that academic instruction in private schools be “substantially equivalent” to public schools, holding virtual meetings this week that focused on the Hudson Valley and Brooklyn.

Those are the places where the issue of education in ultra-Orthodox yeshivas has fueled bitter disputes, with leaders of large Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish populations fighting to preserve what they see as educational freedom as activists say some yeshivas fail to prepare boys for a productive future and civic involvement.

Earlier proposed guidelines were struck down in court and proposed regulations were put on the backburner by the state after intense opposition.

A state education official said this week that such guidelines would be issued in 2021.

[Read more…]

Documentary “America’s Holy War” Now on Amazon Prime

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 Filmed in Ramapo, the documentary tells the story of the RLUIPA law and it’s consequences. It’s now available online with Amazon Prime. (View trailer here and for the Amazon catalog listing, click here.) 

RLUIPA (2000):  No government shall impose or implement a land use regulation in a manner that imposes a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person, including a religious assembly or institution, unless the government demonstrates that imposition of the burden on that person, assembly, or institution, is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.” [Read more…]

Elections Update: Reichlin-Melnick wins Senate seat over Weber; Lawler unseats Jaffee

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“As absentee vote-counting winds down, Democratic state Senate candidate Elijah Reichlin-Melnick and Assembly Republican hopeful Michael Lawler have won election in their respective races, elections officials said.

Lawler’s ousting of seven-term Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee means Democrats will lose a seat in the Assembly while still maintaining majority control of the lower house. Reichlin-Melnick succeeds a Democrat, David Carlucci, and his party will continue to hold the majority. [Read more…]

Incomplete Rockland Returns

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Election Results bannerMore than 36,000 voted same day at the polls and there were 40,000 absentee ballots requested–The returns here reflect the same day votes and don’t include all absentees.

District 17 House of Representatives

Jones        134,845

Gottesfeld   96,634

Eisen             5,732

Parietti          2,132

District 97  New York Assembly

Lawler     26,138

Jaffee     18,562

District  38  New York Senate

Weber    51,571

Reichlin-Melnick  48,422

District 96  New York Assembly

Zebrowski   31,588   (unopposed)