Reply To: School Board Monitors in Lakewood & East Ramapo

Less Chumras

Yes there was a small deficit of $3-4 million and the monitor who is a paid professional earning over $175,000.00 plus fringe benefits of which there are three.They were supposed to be pay the deficit off with the 7% budget increase plus the $2 million in concession from the yeshivas, $1 million from the town and $2 million from the state. The monitor mismanaged the budget which was the only thing they were hired to fix, as the district only had a budget problem not a funding problem They gave school employees a raise when they didn’t have the money. Now the first year on the job with all of those increases out of a $112 million budget they has a $12.4 million deficit and climbing.

ZD

The 5 Towns doesn’t have these same problems because the rate of student growth is much less because housing there is more expensive as is taxes and they control growth through planning better. Student growth is about 3,000 additional yeshiva students each year in both Lakewood & Monsey. I tend to doubt there is more than a few hundred addition yeshiva students each year in the 5 towns. Also, there are probably sidewalks, traffic lights and crossing guards in the 5 towns as opposed to Lakewood & Monsey so there is no need for courtesy busing.