Reply To: School Board Monitors in Lakewood & East Ramapo

In order for the school monitor to be granted veto power over the board it requires a bill to be passed by both the NY State Assembly & Senate and signed by the Governor. Last year it was stalled in the senate and the current Senate Majority Leader feels the bill is Anti Semitic so even if it passes the Assembly it is not going to be put to a vote in the senate and will not become law.

As far as not inviting the monitor to school board meetings all that it means is that instead of sitting on the dias with the board members they are seated with the general public. As far as reallocating funds from the classroom to the legal defense fund, this would only be a tit for tat to annoy the public school supporters and no criminal action would be taken against the board.

As far as I know there is no state law as to teacher student ratio so in theory you could have 100 students per class and still be providing mandatory education. If every class had 100 student besides special ed., there would be surplus school buildings which can be sold. Just another crazy idea.

As far as eliminating or changing the distance a student has to reside in order to be entitled to school busing this would require a new law and affect the whole state. If the school monitor’s veto bill can’t be passed why do you think this bill which will effect students in every district in the state will?

A new school district budget must be drafted in both Lakewood And East Ramapo for the new school year 2016-2017 now and voted by the public by May. Will they allocate funds for the board’s legal defense? Will there be an increase? In Lakewood they need another $9.5 million in the current year due to mismanagement by the school monitor. Who knows what he has planned for the next school year?