Kiryas Joel, NY – The East Ramapo school board on Nov. 18 voted to hire Long Island lawyer Albert D’Agostino and drop its longtime legal team.
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At a subsequent meeting on Dec. 2, the school board rehired its former counsel and hired yet more legal counsel to weigh the hiring of D’Agostino, who is embroiled in a controversy with the state for the receipt of more than $500,000 in pension payments.
Below is a comment from the superintendent of the Kiryas Joel School District in Orange County. — Editor
The debate over attorneys at the East Ramapo school district has taken an ugly turn. While I take no position on the merits of the competing claims over who could best provide legal counsel to the school board, I am troubled by the tone of the debate and the undeserved attack leveled against the Kiryas Joel school district. I believe I am in a unique position to answer the charges as I am the school superintendent of Kiryas Joel, as well as an East Ramapo resident for more than two decades.
In public comments made at East Ramapo school board meetings and mirrored on LoHud forums, individuals commented that the hiring of a new lawyer by the district was an attempt to redistribute East Ramapo taxes to Kiryas Joel. Nothing could be further from the truth.
To set the record straight, the Kiryas Joel Public School provides bilingual Yiddish-English special education programs, including self-contained classes and a full array of related therapy services, to hundreds of students, including children residing in the East Ramapo school district. Under federal law, all handicapped students are entitled to a free, appropriate public education, and East Ramapo has determined that Kiryas Joel offers an appropriate program for many of the district’s students. The decision to send special education students to an out-of-district program is made by a committee of professionals, using assessment tools, federal guidelines and their best judgment.
From a financial perspective, our tuition charges to East Ramapo are below the rate approved for us by the State Education Department and even below the cost of sending these severely impaired children, many with multiple handicaps, to the local Rockland BOCES. The number of students sent to Kiryas Joel by East Ramapo has, in point of fact, decreased from last year. Moreover, the parents of these students are East Ramapo taxpayers, for whom the district has both a legal and moral obligation to educate their children.
It is both reckless and irresponsible to scapegoat one community in order to inflame another. Attacking Kiryas Joel to score points in an unrelated debate is unacceptable and factually wrong. In her Dec. 6 letter to the editor, former East Ramapo school board candidate Peggy Hatton concludes with the comment, “Public education is a civil right.” I would add that public discourse should be conducted in a civil manner, respecting all parents and students, including those with special needs.
The writer, a New Hempstead resident, is superintendent of schools for the Kiryas Joel school district in Orange County.
well done!
The journal news is a rag and one that has so many anti-semitic comments on its forum! they look for the scandal and do not always report accurately. everyone in monsey knows it is very biased.
Exactly who determined that Kiryas Joel offers an appropriate program for many of the district’s students?
The decision to send special education students to an out-of-district program is made by a committee of professionals, using assessment tools, federal guidelines and their best judgment.
Who is on this committee? Their best judgement? Even if that judgement is counterproductive to the school district and the best interests of the children they are suppost to serve?
Looks like state or federal oversight is necessary when you look at the East Ramapo Board and use the term best judgement in the same sentence.