East Ramapo Board Ousts Oustatcher, Appoints Klein Interim
Superintendent--
Finalizes Budget with 7.5% Tax Increase to Send to Voters
April 1, 2011
Thursday night's meeting of the East Ramapo School Board finalized
changes to the proposed budget that
will be voted on May 17, along with four seats on the board. The
seven members present also voted to demote Super-
intendent Ira Oustatcher and appoint Joel Klein to serve as interim
schools superintendent.
"The East Ramapo Board of Education on Thursday
removed Ira Oustatcher as superintendent of schools and appointed
Director of Special Student Services Joel Klein as interim
superintendent. Oustatcher will serve the rest of the school year as
interim director of special student services. Whether he will remain
in that position was not made clear Thursday. The board approved the
measure in a 6-0 vote.
Trustees Stephen Price, Suzanne Young-Mercer
and JoAnne Thompson were not present. Though school district
attorney Albert D'Agostino read the motion to remove Oustatcher
aloud, Aron Wieder, school board vice president, officially made the
motion and was seconded by Trustee Eliyahu Solomon." Complete
Journal News coverage
here.
The Board also voted on the proposed budget
that will soon be put before the voters. "The ($200.5 million)
budget would cut about 89 positions, including high school deans, 40
teachers and 17 teaching assistants, and increase elementary school
class sizes by several students per classroom. Class size in grades
four through six would increase to 32 students."
"Wednesday night's budget hearing was not
without controversy. The hearing and vote originally were scheduled
for April 6, but changed Wednesday.
Tension exists in the community between the
interests of the private school community of predominately Orthodox
and Hasidic Jews and the public school community. The
Orthodox-Hasidic members control six of the nine school board seats.
Two board members, Stephen Price and Suzanne
Young-Mercer, left the meeting after an argument on whether the
board members were putting up a budget they knew would fail at the
polls, board President Nathan Rothschild said." Complete Journal
News coverage on the budget issue
here.
