After Civil-Rights Case, Mother and father Search Louder Voice in New York Faculty District Vote

By Last updated Jan 30, 2021

SPRING VALLEY, NY – Residents of a school district north of New York City are voting in a new system that civil rights activists and a federal judge say they offer black and Hispanic voters a better voice in their children’s education for trustees.

The special elections are emotionally charged in the East Ramapo district, where the school board has long been dominated by Orthodox Jewish men from a community whose children do not attend public schools.

Almost all of the 9,200 or so public school children are low-income and black or Spanish, including many immigrants who speak little English. Almost all of the 28,700 private school students living in the district are white and most of them attend yeshivas.

The new trustee selection system comes after years of litigation. Lawyers and candidates are rushing to vote on phone banking, online events, and social media. Ballot papers must be sent or handed in by late Tuesday.

Ana Maeda-Gonzalez, a mother of three who runs a Latino parents group called Union de Padres in the East Ramapo Central School District, hopes the special elections will motivate parents who in the past have assumed their votes didn’t matter play. “Hopefully the parents know that more people are fighting for their colored children,” she said.

Ana Maeda-Gonzalez, a parenting activist, and her 10-year-old son Jefferson; She hopes the district’s new voting system will send parents a message that their votes will count.

Rockland County spans several cities, including Spring Valley and Monsey. The area has attracted a flood of Orthodox and Hasidic families, who have elected members of their parish as the most board seats for more than a decade. Many voters wanted to curb property taxes and increase government-funded services for private school children such as buses and programs for the disabled.

Public schools were plagued by budget problems and poor performance. For several years, the district severely cut faculties, teaching, and the arts. A scathing 2014 report by a state-appointed monitor accused the school board of ruthless mismanagement, spending more bus trips than the state required for private school children, and continued failure to act in the best interests of public school students.

Orthodox leaders have stated that they work for all children, and state formulas for allocating aid do not match the unique imbalance between private and public enrollment in the district.

Under the old electoral system, residents voted for candidates for nine statewide seats. The new process divides the area into nine wards, and residents can only vote for one candidate who lives in their parish. In three districts, the majority of those eligible to vote are black or Spanish.

The Spring Valley National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sued the district in 2017 for overthrowing the overall system, saying it had watered down the voices of black and Hispanic residents. The New York Civil Liberties Union represented the NAACP with the help of the law firm Latham & Watkins, which said it donated its dues to a nonprofit that serves local students.

The entire system violated the voting rights law, so the opinion of Judge Cathy Seibel of the South District of New York last May. She said influential leaders in the white private school community worked behind the scenes to select, promote, and install their own candidates for county seats.

Black and Latin American voters in East Ramapo are “frustrated with this most fundamental and precious endeavor,” she wrote. “Like their white neighbors, they have the right to have their voices heard.”

The district has lost its appeal and has asked to repeat it at the appeal level.

Chairman Harry Grossman declined to be interviewed, but said via email that the board “is complying with the court order and awaiting a full and fair, open election”.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys say the case exposes unjust obstacles to voting in local races in other countries. “This general voting system, in which all winners are considered, is a tried and tested tactic of the white segregationist South,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Racial watering down in school district elections is common, but litigation over it is relatively rare because these cases are so time-consuming and expensive, said NYCLU attorney Perry Grossman. For example, the American Civil Liberties Union won one such case against the Ferguson-Florissant School District in Missouri in 2017.

Currently, black women in East Ramapo hold three of the nine directorships. Judge Seibel noted that the White Slating Organization was under pressure to use public school officials due to the legal battle and the state monitor. Public school advocates say that under the new system, trustees will respond to voters rather than the heads of the private school community who orchestrate who gets a position.

A ballot box in the Spring Valley; District residents vote after a judicial challenge under the Voting Rights Act according to a judicial system for trustees of the school authority.

A new candidate is Sherry McGill, a black math teacher. She said she wanted to improve accountability, advanced courses, and communication with families. “What I hear from other parents is that they feel they are out of date,” she said.

Mark Berkowitz, an Orthodox trustee running for another term, fears that the new system may encourage trustees to advocate only for their own wards. “You have to be willing to work together,” he said.

Dr. Shani Bechhofer, an Orthodox educator and school counselor in Monsey, said she wished candidates were trying to defuse cross-cultural hostilities and that many neighbors were grappling with high property taxes.

“I don’t think this new ward system will solve the problems of this unusual district. It will just change the incentive structure given the scarce resources,” she said via email. “The bottom line is that public schools are financed through property taxes.” a recipe for conflict and inequality. “

The district’s performance has increased since the state began using monitors to monitor its operations in 2015. About 28% of his children in grades three through eight passed state reading tests in spring 2019, the last available year. The graduation rate rose to 65% last year, according to state data, compared to 85% across the state.

Interim Superintendent Ray Giamartino said the millions of dollars spent on litigation and fighting the coronavirus pandemic contributed to a likely deficit of at least $ 15 million in the school year budget of around $ 247 million to have.

If potential state and federal relief fails, the district faces downsizing.

“What our students must have,” said Dr. Giamartino, “is equitable access to the high quality programs and services that their peers have in each and every one of our neighboring districts.”

A student was working on his Chromebook last Tuesday during math class at Lime Kiln Elementary School in the East Ramapo School District.

Write to Leslie Brody at [email protected]