“While the district has touted staffing and programming additions in recent years, the district had 332 fewer staff positions in the 2018-2019 school year compared to 2008-2009, when cuts kicked in.

From The Journal News

East Ramapo interim Superintendent Raymond Giamartino Jr. on Monday confirmed that the district planned to lay off teachers and combine classrooms, an unusual mid-year move that adds even more disruption to a year that’s seen buildings repeatedly shut by COVID-19 cases.

Giamartino pinned the blame for cuts on the current contingency budget, which limits how the district can spend, and the millions of dollars invested in a legal defense on behalf of the district during a federal civil rights court challenge brought by the Spring Valley NAACP – a case the district ultimately lost. [Read more…]

For all voters in Rockland County, here are the procedures and contacts to get your absentee ballot to vote in the presidential election in November.

From Preserve Ramapo Sept. 2:

We want to bring your attention to two initiatives that are
currently underway.

1.) Rally at the Legislature.

There will be a rally in front of the Rockland legislative office building
in New City at 6:15 PM, tomorrow evening, Tuesday Sept. 6th to protest Legislator Aron Weider for his habitual practice of crying anti-Semitism.

We will gather outside the Legislative building to hold our protest at 6:15 PM and then move into the legislative chambers to attend the meeting of the Legislature beginning at 7:00 PM. Our intent is to make use of the public comment period held at the end of the meeting to speak out about the corrosive and divisive practice of using the charge of anti-Semitism to stifle legitimate political debate. [Read more…]

Rockland County Legislator Aron Wieder speaks about issues of public and private school equivalency at Yeshiva Degel Hatorah in Spring Valley Feb. 26, 2019. At left is the school’s principal, Rabbi Moshe Schwab. (Photo: Peter Carr/The Journal News)

“Educators at a boys yeshiva said Tuesday that the state’s guidelines for a substantially equivalent education would be prohibitive to their students’ studies.

“It infringes on our religious rights,” said Rabbi Moshe Schwab, the principal of Yeshiva Degel HaTorah. “We’re begging the commissioner to reconsider because … it’s going to infringe on the good educational system that we have. We know we have to have equivalency and we think we not only have equivalent, we’re superior.”

His pleas were targeted at a previously ignored 70-year-old law stating private school education needs to be “substantially equivalent” to public school, which gained traction a few years ago when state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia updated guidelines to enforce it. [Read more…]

Rockland County Executive Ed Day and Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski announce plans to immediately inspect private schools for building code and fire safety on May 26, 2016. (Photo: Ricky Flores/The Journal News)

“A state monitor assigned nearly two years ago to oversee the town fire and safety inspections and building department administration has been pulled from Town Hall.

After assigning the oversight in response to years of complaints about Ramapo’s deficient enforcement of fire safety and building codes, the state has determined the Ramapo Building Department has shown improvement and now meets the minimum standards.

FINAL REPORT: State removes building department monitor

LETTER: State releases Ramapo monitor

LETTER: Zebrowski, Jaffee and Carlucci write the state concerned about safety of residents

[Read more…]

“A state Supreme Court judge has ordered the closure of a Route 306 private school operating without town approvals, but town officials said the school’s appeal will stall emptying the modular classrooms of students.

Congregation Bais Chinuch Ateres Bnos — which has been subject to fire and safety code violations — has been teaching more than 300 students for more than a year at 261 Route 306 without town permits and site plan approval.

The school’s two-year temporary certificate of occupancy expired Sept. 30, 2017. [Read more…]