Mareesa Nicosia

mnicosia@lohud.com

SPRING VALLEY A crowd of immigrant students and their families rallied Tuesday night in a show of opposition to what the East Ramapo schools superintendent has recently remarked is an immigrant-driven inflation of the district's drop-out rate.

The group of at least 80 people stood outside the district headquarters before a board meeting chanting and holding signs that read: "Education not discrimination" and "Klein resign." Several speakers at the rally and later during the meeting shared why they found Superintendent Joel Klein's comments offensive and discriminatory.

"As an immigrant student, I have to overcome many obstacles in the path to my education," 2013 alumna Jhoanna Haro, who immigrated from Ecuador at age 8, said. "... We are not here to get free food, we are here to get an education and we all deserve to have the same rights as everybody else."

Claudio Lopez and his wife, both immigrants who obtained U.S. citizenship, enrolled five children in East Ramapo, including a son who recently graduated and joined the Marine Corps.

"We need to have an opportunity to talk, to say we're here," Lopez said. "... We are part of this community, even if you like it or not, we're here. And we only receive in this district just leftovers. Somebody else is serving the whole pie, but we all have leftovers."

The backlash was staged in the same spot where dozens of new students — many with roots in Central and South America — have lined up on recent mornings to register for school in East Ramapo, one of the region's most ethnically diverse, high-needs districts.

Administrators say the influx of nearly 350 immigrant students in the last year, including many older teens who have limited or no English language skills, has propelled them to review the way they meet those students' needs.

While all students are entitled to a free public education until age 21, East Ramapo is considering an "alternate transitional" program for immigrant students in their late teens and early 20s who may be primarily looking to increase their English language proficiency and learn vocational skills before dropping out of high school to join the work force, officials said.

Klein's remarks at an Aug. 19 meeting — a portion of which were videotaped and posted on YouTube by East Ramapo critic Antonio Luciano — seemed to indicate that older immigrant students were better off not enrolling in school, for their sake and for the district's sake.

"They want to learn the language," Klein said in the video clip. "They want free lunch, breakfast, and whatever else they can get. They know they cannot get a diploma. ... It's a major, major issue, so we're dealing with it."

He expressed his support for a program that would redirect immigrant students away from the Regents diploma path and avoid inflating the drop-out rate in the financially struggling district, saying the immigrant population skews the graduation rate "because we know every one of these kids are dropping out."

The graduation rate has decreased in recent years to less than 70 percent while the drop-out rate has risen to 17 percent, according to state Education Department data released in June.

At Tuesday's meeting, parent activist Kim Foskew said she was "embarrassed" by Klein's comments and that the board should reconsider his leadership of the district.

"Not to make any mention of the complete dismantling of this district over the past few years ... (because of) all the budget cuts at the very least was disingenuous," she said. "Could the large class sizes, lack of teaching assistants, remediation cuts, no collaborative classes be a contributing factor? I think so."

Klein told the packed meeting room of angry residents that his full comments at the Aug. 19 meeting were not accounted for in the 6-minute video.

"At the last meeting, some of my comments about this exciting new program were taken out of context, misinterpreted and frankly, distorted," Klein said. "The comments I gave were an overview of the program resulting from many, many months of planning including suggestions from the New York state Education Department and other school districts."

He said the district had planned to make a presentation about the pilot program Tuesday night but will postpone any action until it can get further guidance from the state Education Department.

"I want to ensure everyone in the clearest and strongest way possible that whatever we end up doing in this area, it will be designed to help our students," Klein said. "We always endeavor to do that."

Potentially the district could fund the transitional program using some of $195,000 in additional Title III money it expects to receive this year, which is for immigrant education, officials have said.

Twitter: @MareesaNicosia