Misaskim 
A small fraction of East Ramapo voters easily approved the district’s $191.9 million school budget Tuesday during a revote, bringing closure to a long and anxiety-ridden budget season.
The 2012-13 spending plan, virtually identical to the one taxpayers rejected last month, was approved by a vote of 3,562 to 1,217, according to unofficial results announced by the district late Tuesday.
“I think parents understood that we would have to cut $2.6 million” if the budget failed again, Superintendent of Schools Joel Klein said. “We don’t have to cut any more programs; we can move forward.”
For months, district staff, parents, students and community members have weighed the potential loss of East Ramapo’s kindergarten program — in full and in part — among steep cuts to programs and staff made to comply with the state’s new property-tax cap.
The budget approved Tuesday is about $7 million less than this year’s budget, though it contains a total $12 million in cuts, including the elimination of more than 90 staff members and the district’s full-day kindergarten program. A half-day kindergarten program will remain.
The “yes” vote paves the way for East Ramapo to move forward with the next looming challenge: how schools will operate safely and efficiently next year with far fewer teachers, social workers, assistant principals, teaching assistants, library media specialists and others.
If the budget had failed a second time at the polls, the district would be required to adopt a contingency budget with a zero percent tax-levy increase and be forced to cut another $2.6 million from the spending plan.
Among the cuts could have been the remaining half-day kindergarten program.
District officials have hinted that new revenues could help bring some employees back, depending on Medicaid payments the district receives and how much money is saved by concessions made by the teachers union in a new, five-year contract approved this month.
The union, whose contract is up June 30, became a focal point in the budget process after the May 15 election, when the budget was first rejected and two Orthodox newcomers were voted onto the school board, raising the majority of Orthodox and Hasidic board members to 7-2.
The passing of the school budget is one of the biggest subterfuges that has ever taken place in Ramapo. The orthodox Jewish residents of Monsey supported and voted for 3 frum school board candidates, who posted signs all over Monsey reading, “Can you afford a raise in property taxes?” Just about everyone bought into their agenda, and all 3 candidates were elected.
Some months later, recorded phone calls were made, and flyers were sent out to the orthodox community urging people to go out and vote “NO” on the school budget proposal. Some 15000 residents showed up to vote on the budget proposal, and it was was defeated hands down. Everyone thought that there would be no new levy, and that the issue was put to rest.
Suddenly and quite unexpectedly, the word was out that there would be a revote on the school budget proposal, but this time there were no recorded phone calls made or flyers sent out urging the orthodox Jewish populace to go out and vote the budget down. Indeed, a mere 4700 residents showed up to vote this time. Let’s ask: What happened to the other 10,000 people who showed up at the first voting? Were they so confident that the budget would not pass on the revote, thus making it unnecessary for them to go out and vote?
On the day after the revote, an article in the Rockland Journal, which quoted tax activist Kalman Weber, brought everything into focus. Weber was quoted as having said that the defeat of the school budget, resulting from the first voting, sent a clear message to the teacher’s union that the union will have to make concessions in order to have future budgets passed. In other words, the call to go out and vote the budget down was not intended to avoid a new levy for us, but rather to show the teacher’s union where the majority of the voting muscle is. The rest is academic. Weber and his group facilitated a deal with the teacher’s union, the budget was put to a revote, and the majority of the “voting muscle” were told to stay home. In effect, we helped to support Weber’s agenda at the cost of a gaining a new tax levy for ourselves.
It would be interesting to know if the three frum school board electees went out to vote the budget down on the second vote. These are the very people, who committed themselves to lessening our tax burden.
Jayemmar