Reply To: School Board Monitors in Lakewood & East Ramapo

Could someone explain to me if the East Ramapo School Budget in 2010 was $187 million and there were no tax increases. Why was the current school budget voted and approved in May 2015 $218 million? Also by NY state law the budget can’t be increased by more than 2% per year without a special referendum.

AS you can see the taxpayers have exceeded the cap in the last 5 years. Now as far as cutting busing this is a very small percentage of the budget. But if you cut it will effect a greater percentage of public school students and if they miss enough days they have to repeat the year. Likewise, every day a student is absent from school the prorated amount is deducted from the school budget. So if the district is getting $18,000 per student and the school year is 180 days, each school day is worth $100.00 per student. If your forcing the parent to bring the student some times they just can’t which will result in higher absenteeism and costing the district $100 per student per day.