NEW YORK The New York State Education Dept. appointed a panel to study the operations of the haredi Orthodox-controlled school board in the East Ramapo school district.
The board, located in New Yorks suburban Rockland County, has stirred controversy and local ire for its decisions over the years to significantly cut public school budgets while expanding services that benefit the areas large Orthodox Jewish population, such as busing to yeshivas and special education for yeshiva students with disabilities.
In addition, at least two district schools have been shuttered and their facilities sold to yeshivas.
The three-expert panel, to be led by former New York City Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, will study the districts operations and offer recommendations to the school board and the Board of Regents.
It will not, however, have the power to override decisions by the school board.
Last fall, a former federal prosecutor appointed by the state to investigate the school board, Henry Greenberg, determined that the board had diverted money from the districts public schools to yeshiva children and recommended the appointment of a state fiscal monitor with the power to override school board decisions. But a bill to appoint such a monitor failed to pass the State Senate.
East Ramapos public schools serve about 8,000 students, most of them black or Latino, while about 24,000 children in the district attend yeshivas, according to The New York Times.
