The East Ramapo Central School District in Rockland County,NY is a public school district that is very unique. Over 70 per cent of the school children in the district attend private & parochial schools. The area that the district encompasses is Monsey, Wesley Hills, Spring Valley, Pomona, and parts of Haverstraw. It has one of the highest concentration of Orthodox & Hasidic Jews in the nation. These families tend to have many children, with 10 to 15 children per family being the norm rather than the exception. All these numerous children attend Yeshivas rather that public school.

The public schools are financed by a property tax. The average homeowner, such as myself, with a one family high-ranch house pays about $6,000 a year in property taxes, with about $3,500 of that going towards the public schools. Everyone is required to pay the school tax regardless of whether their children attend the public schools or the private yeshivas. Therefore, the parents who send their children to yeshiva have to pay this, in addition to the tuition charged by the yeshivas which ranges from $15,000 to $20,000 per child, per year.

Because of "separation of Church & State" mandated by the U.S. constitution none of the tax dollars can be used towards deferring the costs of private school. Yes, certains costs such as school bus transportation, remedial tutors for special children, and certain text books can be paid for out of tax dollars but bye and large, the separation of Church & State disallows anything else.

The School Board, which governs the district is made up of 9 trustees who are elected by the residents. The terms of these trustees vary from one to two to three years and are overlapping, so that only 3 positions are up for election each year. In previous years the board was made up entirely of members who's children attended the public schools. Even though the amount of children attending public schools has declined markedly with a corresponding rise in yeshiva attendance the public school taxes continued to rise disproportinally, with the private school parents paying the lion's share. What you had here was a clear case of "taxation without representation".

All this changed a few years ago when a Hasidic man by the name of Kalman Webber formed the Southeast Taxpayers Association. For the past 7 years Mr.Webber ran Orthodox Jewish candidates for every vacant position on the school board through very well orchestrated and organized grass root campaigns. Now, there are 6 members of the board who send their children to yeshivas and only 3 remaining members who's kids attend public school. Those 3 remain only because Mr. Webber, who now has a clear majority, has chosen not to run candidates against them.

Contrary to the fears of the public school population, the new school board has re-affirmed their commitment to provide a quality education to ALL school children in the district. In the short time since they have taken over they have carried through on that commitment by improving and increasing services to the public schools while at the same time, reducing the rate of tax increases. This year alone, while the all the other school districts in the county have to deal with whopping 50% increases in their tax rates, East Ramapo's increase will be less than 1%. How have they done that ? By eliminating waste and increasing efficiency; not by diminishing educational services.

And yet, despite all this positive accomplishment, you have small minded people here in East Ramapo crying foul. They would like to change the law to say that only people who send their children to public school should be allowed to govern on the school board and that those who send their children to parochial schools should be excluded. Yes, because the members of this school board look different and dress differently than previous ones, they hae been subjected to verbal abuse and religious slurs & invectives during school board meetings that are attended by the public. Even the Rockland Journal News has editorialized against this board as being elected by a bloc vote and not being representative of the general public school population.

Two recent issues have brought the situation to a boiling point. The first was the hiring of Israel Bier, a Hasidic man and former school board member, as treasurer of the district with a salary of $25,000 a year. The duties of treasurer were formerly handled by the district's business manager as part of his job. Mr. Bier happens to be an expert on education law with expertise in obtaining governmental grants. The board felt that this was a good investment and pointed out that in almost all other school districts in the state, the positions of Business Manager and Treasurer are held by separate individuals.

The second and much more volatile issue involves the sale of real estate. The school board owns a rather large parcel of vacant land in Wesley Hills adjacent to the Lime Kiln School. This land was acquired many years ago with the intention of building another school when it was thought that the public school enrollment would increase.
However, the changing demographics of the area has now brought about a
decrease rather than an increase in public school attendance. The board wants to sell off this surplus land and a developer from Brooklyn has offerd a bid of $7.5 Million dollars for it. Not only can the school board use this money for extra services as well as tax relief, but the developer plans to erect 40 houses on this land which would increase the tax base therby generating additional revenue. The opponents of this school board suddenly became enviromentalists and are campaining to keep this land as open "green space". The Town of Ramapo and Village of Wesley Hills have offered to buy it as park land but can only pay $3.5 million. Those who voted this school board into office have said that the East Ramapo School Board should not be in the business of preserving open space and have threatened to take legal action if the board does not accept the developer's offer of $7.5 million.

Every day there are letters in the Journal News about this issue, both pro and con and the rehtoric is being ratcheheted up to the point where they contain anti-semitic diatribe. It is a very unhealthy situation in the making.

I have rambled on long enough. It is now time to hear what you all have to say about this.

                                                 SOL ZELLER