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.
East Ramapo hires superintendent plans flat tax levy in budget lohud.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lohud.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
SPRING VALLEY - East Ramapo district s renown band played, dignitaries gathered and green-and-yellow streamers were snipped during a ribbon-cutting for a new athletic fitness center at Ramapo High.
The center, with 4,400 square feet of functional instruction space, demonstrated the district s and community s investment in equitable access, said interim Superintendent Raymond Giamartino.
The center had been years in the planning, officials said, and was part of the district s wellness initiatives. Officials said the project cost around $100,000 in this budget year and was funded partially through a Creating Healthy Schools and Communities grant in partnership with Rockland County Department of Health.
U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones, a Spring Valley High School graduate, noted that his mother was a Gryphon, a graduate of RHS. He lauded the district s investment in its physical education plan, even amid the financial challenges that have hamstrung all school districts amid the COVID p