Local Officials Call On Governor To Help East Ramapo Schools

Senator David Carlucci (D-Rockland/Westchester), Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee (D-Rockland) and Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski (D-Rockland) stood with local community leaders Nathan Mungin, Winsome Downie-Raiford from the Martin Luther King Center and Willie Trotman, president of the NAACP Spring Valley Chapter to ask Governor Cuomo to sign the East Ramapo School District Lottery Spin-up bill.

"Passing this piece of legislation was one of my top priorities in Albany,” said Carlucci. “I am pleased that with this bill we will help restore vital services for the students of the East Ramapo Central School District while creating strict oversight and guidelines as to how the funds will be spent.”  

Over the past two years the East Ramapo Central School District has reduced its workforce by about 400 of 25 percent including social workers, elementary assistant principals, staff developers in technology and clerical and support services. In addition, a significant number of education programs have been cut back or eliminated including full-day kindergarten, sports and clubs, cultural arts, instrumental music, summer programs and extra help programs.

The legislation allows for $3.5 million dollars in accelerated lottery aid to go directly to the East Ramapo Central School District. The amount would be deducted from future lottery allocations over a 30- year period. During that time period, the district would have to follow strict regulations and report its spending on a regular basis to the New York State Department of Education through an appointed advisory team.

The advisory team will consist of the East Ramapo superintendent of schools or his or her designee, a member of the school board, a teacher employed in the district, an administrator employed in the district and a parent of a student.

 “I look forward to Governor Cuomo signing this bill, so that the students in the East Ramapo School central school district don't have to suffer any more cuts to essential programs that are part of a basic public school education,” said Jaffee. “I am confident the oversight provisions in this bill will ensure the restoration of some of those cuts that the public school students have been forced to endure.”

The advisory team will need to develop a comprehensive expenditure plan and deliver the plan in voucher form to the state education commissioner. The funding would only be used for instructional services, including teacher salaries; guidance services, including guidance counselor salaries; health services, including nurse salaries; security services, including security guard salaries; board of cooperative education services expenses; co-curricular activities, including instructional salaries and contractual services; intra-mural activities, including instructional salaries; and interscholastic athletics, including instructional salaries, contractual expenses, security and transportation.

“This is a big first step to making sure our children are getting the best possible education at the East Ramapo Central School District.” said Trotman, “I am very pleased this legislation comes with a mandatory reporting requirement that will make the school district report directly to the State Education Department concerning their spending of this accelerated aid. We need to continue to make sure our schools have adequate funding to educate our students. I applaud the work of Senator Carlucci, Assemblywoman Jaffee and Assemblyman Zebrowski who have made the East Ramapo Central School District a major priority in Albany. The Governor needs to stand with the Rockland Community and make sure our children don’t lose out on their education.”

Zebrowski said, “This legislation will protect the programs and services that the East Ramapo students deserve and provide the necessary oversight to ensure that the additional funding is appropriately spent.”