Advocates react to East Ramapo school district audit that found excess of $30M in unrestricted funds from last year's budget
News 12 heard from advocates about this week’s announcement that the East Ramapo School District ended the 2023-24 school year with a surplus.
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News 12 heard from advocates about this week’s announcement that the East Ramapo School District ended the 2023-24 school year with a surplus.
As News 12 has reported, at a school board meeting on Monday night, an outside auditor said there is an excess of $30 million in unrestricted funds from last year's budget in East Ramapo.
That has created lots of feelings from community members considering the school district's history of financial issues and talks last year of a looming multimillion-dollar deficit.
"This is mystifying to say the least," said Rabbi Yeruchim Silber, with Agudath Israel of America Which in part advocates for private school students. The group released this statement that says fixing the foundation aid formula would solve the district's finances.
"In a district where three quarters are private school students, the foundation aid to not take them into account is unfair," says Silber.
"Hopefully, good comes along and that money is used properly," said Ana Maeda, an alum of the school district who has children attending school there now.
She led a legal battle with help from the NYCLU earlier this year to levy a new tax increase to benefit public school students following years of previous budget vote failures.
"I can tell as a student, when I was in East Ramapo, to now being a mother, I can tell how deprived we are compared to other districts," says Maeda.
