Task Force To Advise East Ramapo On Its $162 Million Windfall

RAMAPO, NY — With $162 million in federal aid destined to pour into the East Ramapo schools, some discussion has begun about how to spend the money in a district with big financial problems and a history of incompetent, controversial and illegal spending.

Congressman Mondaire Jones announced the creation of a task force to help advise East Ramapo's Interim Superintendent, Dr. Ray Giamartino, on the distribution of $162 million in American Rescue Plan funding allocated to the district.

Strict oversight is needed more than advice, said Steven White, local activist and author of the Power Of Ten newsletter.

"With a deluge of new state and federal money coming in, there is the potential that more fiscal shenanigans will be hidden in the flood," White wrote.

The district, which includes parts of the communities of New City, Pearl River, Nanuet, Spring Valley, Suffern, New Hempstead, Chestnut Ridge, Monsey and Wesley Hills, has about 8,800 students in its schools. However, another 30,000 school-age children live there, and go to private schools mostly yeshivas.

White's fear is that marginal improvements "will be used as cover for continued diversion of resources from public schools that serve children of color to all-white private schools."

He pointed out that the district's fiscal mismanagement was not in the past.

In January, a judge ruled that the district owed the NAACP $4.3 million for its successful voting-rights challenge to the East Ramapo school board. "The District chose to expend substantial resources, as it has done in connection with past lawsuits, to procure expensive counsel," U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith McCarthy pointed out. The district asked the NAACP to accept a $1 payment and threatened to lay off teachers to cover the fees.

In February, the community found out that in 2020 the district not only overspent the legal budget by millions of dollars, but also failed to correct the budget to account for a cut in state funding announced at the height of the pandemic.

State officials had said they were cutting an amount equal to federal COVID relief funds, but the $15 million of the federal funds for East Ramapo were earmarked for private schools.
"So the effect was a transfer from the public to the private," White said. "This resulted in a fiscal disaster in which the district became insolvent and needed to borrow funds to meet the payroll."

There have been numerous state and federal investigations and reports documenting a continuing pattern of fiscal mismanagement and neglect by the East Ramapo Board of Education over the last 15 years.

The district's own insurance company refused to pay its legal fees in the first lawsuit brought by parents after the trustees sold or rented district facilities to yeshivas at below-market rates; paid for religious textbooks for yeshiva students; and provided preferential special-education services for yeshiva students. The insurance company said its contract with the district had an exclusion for fraudulent, dishonest, malicious, criminal and intentional acts.

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Jones said the $162 million allocated to East Ramapo under the American Rescue Plan must be used for public schools. There is a separate funding mechanism in the American Rescue Plan for private schools, he said.

“As a proud product of the East Ramapo Central School District, I am thrilled that the American Rescue Plan, which I helped pass into law, provides $162 million directly to the school district,” said Jones. “It is no exaggeration to say that this money will be transformative for the students, teachers, and staff in East Ramapo. But this funding will only have the desired impact if it is spent properly. We have to get this right, which is why I’m proud to partner with Superintendent Giamartino in announcing the creation of the East Ramapo Public Schools Advisory Task Force to oversee and advise on the allocation of this historic level of funding."

Congress intends the funding used to purchase PPE, hire additional staff, invest in emotional and mental health supports, purchase technology, pay for after-school and summer programs to address learning loss, and more, Jones said.

Using the guidelines set forth in the American Rescue Plan, the Advisory Task Force will provide insights and feedback to:

• Identify and prioritize the programs and projects to be considered for funding
• Assess and monitor the execution of those programs

Jones said the task force will meet regularly and consist of members and stakeholders from the ERCSD community, including representatives from local community groups like the Spring Valley NAACP, the PTA, and the student body.

"This money must be used in the best interests of East Ramapo’s public school students and I look forward to working alongside Superintendent Giamartino and the other members of the task force to ensure that it is," Jones said.