East Ramapo Monitors See Progress in Orthodox-Dominated School District — Ask for More Time

Image by Google Maps
State-appointed monitors assigned to the troubled East Ramapo School District in Rockland County, New York, issued a report today calling for $3 million in state aid to the district — and for continued on-the-ground monitoring next year.
“The State has a duty not to turn its back on the children of East Ramapo and must continue to ensure all students receive the education they deserve,” Board of Regents chancellor Betty A. Rosa said in a statement.
The district has faced years of controversy over allegations that the elected school board favors the interests of the Orthodox Jewish yeshivas located in the district over those of the public schools.
In 2014, a state-appointed fiscal monitor reported to the state’s Board of Regents that the board, in some instances, had chosen to serve the private yeshivas over the public schools.
The New York State Education Department appointed a monitor, former New York City Board of Education chairman Dennis Walcott, to work with the East Ramapo district in August 2015. The current monitors, Charles Szuberla and John Sipple, assumed their posts a year later.
In their report, released online today, the monitors claim that progress has been made at East Ramapo. They report improvements in financial controls, and say that the district will remain out of debt this year.
“We are seeing real change in the District to address these concerns,” Szuberla said in a statement. “It is vital that these changes are allowed to continue in the next school year without imperiling the District’s fiscal integrity.”
The monitors say that $3 million in state funding is required to keep the district on financial track, and that monitors should remain in place in the next school year.
The report draws a drastic picture of a fast-changing school district. According to the monitors, 84% of public school students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, up from 59% a decade ago, and the special education student population is up from 11% of students in 2003 to 19% in 2016.
The nonpublic school population in the district, meanwhile, is growing at 5% per year. The district also now has the second-largest student busing system in New York State.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected]
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
-
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
-
Opinion Gaza and Trump have left the Jewish community at war with itself — and me with a bad case of alienation
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.