State Legislators receiving two different delegations from the East Ramapo Central School District (ERCSD) have been faced with a population of angry parents, defensive administrators, frustrated educators and interdenominational clergy attempting to keep at bay escalating rumors, contention and a simmering hatred stirred up by rabble rousing blogs with students as the pawns.

Factors fueling the situation are accusations of fiscal irresponsibility and irregularities, a shift in demographics during the last 30 years, tight money, the proliferation of non-public schools, and a formula for State Aid that ignores the realities of the situation.

While the district is ranked as one of the wealthiest in the state, more than 75 percent of the students are financially eligible for free or reduced cost lunches.

What both groups have asked for is a formula change. The clergy visiting three weeks ago asked for more State oversight. But the second group calling itself “Community United for Formula Change for the East Ramapo School District” visiting Albany on June 2 looked only for a change in the formula by which the State determines the distribution of State Aid.

Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffe (D-97) one of the legislators receiving both groups said the first group of interdenominational clergy did not want more money until the money was controlled. She said they made a very good impression explaining how concerned they were about the significant cuts in education to the students. “They had very real questions about the way the School Board was dealing with the education and finances and wanted State involvement.” Their concerns were addressed as well to Larry Schwartz, the Governor’s secretary.

The second group, led by Rockland County Legislator Aron Wieder and Dr. Joel Klein, Superintendent of Schools for East Ramapo, though also well met, did not fare as well in their June 2 meetings Jaffee said.

Leading the discussion was Klein who based his arguments on a lack of funding. He told JLBC that the District is the third poorest of the 700 school districts in the State. “Because the State does not count in the non-public school children, we are listed as one of the wealthiest.” East Ramapo serves just fewer than 9,800 children attending the public schools and 22,000 children attending non-public schools, which include mostly yeshivas as well as a significant minority of Catholic and non-sectarian schools. This makes it different than any other school district in the state. He said in most school districts throughout the country, the ratio of public to non-public school students is about 100:4 and as such, the mandated expense to supply the non-public schools with materials and services is easily absorbed.

“We have the highest number of kids as a percentage of the public school in Special Ed in New York State, about 25 percent, including the Special Education children in the non-public schools which is about two thirds of that number, though they’re not counted in the formula.”

According to New York State Law, the School District must provide the private schools with a number of mandated services which include: special education—the biggest cost driver – transportation, health services, computers, library books, textbooks and more. This amounts to about one quarter of the school budget. Also, certain of these services must be paid for out of the school budget for any student living in the district, regardless of where they go to school, even out of district, out of county and out of state.

“But the children in the private schools are not counted in the formula for the public schools so we receive money from the State,” that is not adequate for the entire district. The school district also lost 15% of its special education funding to train the staff.

While the school district has been accused of diverting funds to the non-public schools, Klein said it’s untrue. “That’s all mandated funds by the State but the State won’t pay for it.”

It would seem like a no-brainer to change the formula but Klein said that though proposals have been made to the State, as well as proposed legislation to change the formula, there are other poor school districts that also need money and cites this as the main resistance to change. He also said there are those in the community who have stated that if money is given to the School District, oversight is needed or the money will not go to where it’s needed most.

Klein said ERCSD is about the most monitored school district in the State of New York. “We have the Comptroller’s office here for the last couple of years. Right now we have the New York State Education Department of Special Education; we’ve had the Inspector General here. We come out with clean bills of health.”

But those Albany legislators and some Rockland County legislators said that the audits show a different financial picture.

According to the audit done by the Division of Local Government and School Accountability, the District has been mismanaging its budgets, under calculating its expenditures and over estimating its revenues fueling a growing deficit that can’t even be clearly defined. In two cases the School District estimated they’d get Medicaid aid of $2.8 million but only received $625,000. The District also budgeted for State aid of $33 million and received $37.2 million. Officials were unable to say how that came about as during the audit period, July 1, 2009 to February 1, 2013 there was a turnover of three different Assistant Superintendents for Business.

However the accusations of many of fraud and diversion of funds were not substantiated by an audit by the Office of the State Comptroller or by the Division of Local Government and School Accountability audit. “After reviewing the information gathered during our initial risk assessment, we determined where weaknesses existed and evaluated those weaknesses for the risk of potential fraud, theft, and/or professional misconduct. We determined that financial condition was the area most at risk.”

In answering the State’s recommendations, the School District said its fiscal problems stemmed from growing expenditures for state mandated services and pension health care costs, modest tax revenues and inadequate state aid.

Assemblywoman Jaffee has been proposing legislation which has gone to both houses since she first took office in 2007 as well as lobbying the different governors and the Department of Education and the leadership of the State Assembly.

The legislation was rewritten and gained ground when the change in formula was also proposed for other districts that have non-public school issues. But then the economy tanked. “We continued to talk about it but it was very hard to move it. Everybody was aware of the serious issues in East Ramapo because I kept raising the issue of trying to push this.”

This year she and Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski, (D-96) were able to push for more funding, about $6 million which Klein said would be used to increase programs.

The June 2 delegation was there at the behest of Dov Hikind, representing the 48 Assembly District in Brooklyn. The group included: Pastor Yvonne Lewis, Pastor Jean Dorcelly of Rock Apostolic Church, Rabbi Gavriel Bodenheimer, principal of Yeshiva Bais Mikrah, Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz of Agudath Israel of America, Ramapo Councilwoman Brendel Logan, East Ramapo school board members Bernard Charles, Harry Grossman and Pierre Garmane, Latino activist Juan Pablo Ramirez, Yossi Gestetner, co-founder of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, Rockland County legislator Aron Wieder, East Ramapo assistant superintendents Andrea Coddett, Arthur Fisher and Valter Paci, Rabbi Yisroel Kahan, liaison to various Rockland County agencies and Monsey community members, Benny Polatseck, local business owner and community activist, Chaim Greenfield and Neil Zelman.

When Klein spoke of the successful results of the audits proving the point, Jaffee disagreed with those assessments. “That’s not my impression based on conversations with the Comptroller’s office,” she said. Though the conversation with the June 2 group was only about changing the formula, “There’s another aspect to this now. Given the circumstances that have continued, including the concerns raised in several audits as well as concerns about the legal firm that they (the school district) uses, Minerva and D’Agostino, and the way the board is handling the responsibility.” (Albert D’Agostino as well as one of his associates has come under fire for unprofessional behavior towards East Ramapo students and their parents.) As such, Jaffee said the need is not just for formula change but for oversight, which was the focus of the first delegation.

A Rockland County Legislator, Barry Kantrowitz, who is a product of the ERCSD, has requested Governor Andrew Cuomo use his influence to convince the State Commissioner of Education, John King, to appoint a fiscal monitor to provide immediate administrative and fiscal oversight of the ERCSD.

Asked if she felt she satisfied the concerns of the June 2 delegation, Jaffee said, “I certainly feel there is a need to change the formula…Ken Zebrowski and I were very direct at that meeting. We really didn’t pull any punches…We told them at the meeting, just providing funds is not sufficient.”

County Legislator Aron Wieder, reported to the Rockland County Legislature on the meeting, said they presented a petition to both houses with 1,500 signatures supporting formula change. “It was just so fabulous to see how a community is coming together on a positive note of solutions rather than just finger pointing.”

By Anne Phyllis Pinzow