Hodge, Dickman to join Suffern board; Frasier re-elected
Voters in East Ramapo and Suffern approved 2021-22 budget plans by comfortable margins Tuesday.
Almost 63% of voters backed East Ramapo s $272.45 million budget plan that carried a 0% property tax levy increase but added tens of millions of dollars thanks to a windfall in state and federal funding.
In Suffern, more than 73% of voters approved the budget, while voters chose two challengers and one incumbent to fill three trustee seats.
The two districts held elections a week earlier than the statewide May 18 date to avoid conflicting with the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.
Results are unofficial.
East Ramapo held a trustee vote in February, the result of a federal civil rights case brought by the local NAACP. The suit asserted the district s standard voting method disenfranchised Black and brown families who send about 9,000 children to the public schools and favored the white Orthodox Jewish community that sends about 30,000 children to private yeshivas.
A federal judge agreed, and a new ward voting system was installed that allowed voters to choose local representatives to the nine-member board, rather than the using standard at large voting method.
Both districts are on the cusp of new leadership.
East Ramapo has been led this year by interim Superintendent Raymond Giamartino, appointed after Deborah Wortham left in June after five years. The board on April 13 announced the appointment of Clarence Ellis, a New York City schools administrator, to the top post. Ellis begins in July.
The superintendent of the Pascack Valley Regional High School District has resigned to take the top post in the Suffern school district.
P. Erik Gundersen will take the reins in the New York State district on July 1 and receive a base salary of $265,000. His four-year contract was unanimously approved by the Suffern Board of Education at its April 20 meeting, according to the Journal News of Westchester County.
Although Gundersen said Wednesday that he is excited for a new challenge, he will miss Pascack Valley: The members of my team, the teachers, staff members, and of course the students, he said. It s a wonderful educational community that has allowed me to grow and thrive professionally and personally for the last 27 years.