Colleen Wilson

cwilson2@lohud.com

The state education commissioner has approved a new proposed school budget in East Ramapo that would break the state tax cap, after rescinding a different version more than a week ago.

The new proposed budget “is balanced and does expand educational programming for public school students,” Commissioner MaryEllen Elia wrote in a letter sent to East Ramapo’s school board President Yehuda Weissmandl on Monday.

Elia instructed district officials April 21 to revise their spending plans for the 2017-18 school year after the state Education Department discovered the previous budget would have spent money to bus private school students to school on five days when district schools are not in session.

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Elia said that expenditure had not been disclosed in the budget she reviewed and approved two days prior, and she was concerned money was being spent on private school busing instead of prioritizing funding for educational programs within the public schools that have been cut in recent years.

The education commissioner is obligated by law to review the troubled district's proposed budget and approve it as part of ongoing state monitoring of the East Ramapo district.

East Ramapo Superintendent Deborah Wortham presented the revised 2017-18 budget of $232.6 million at a special meeting last week. It includes a 2.49 percent tax increase, which would provide additional revenue to help restore extracurricular programs, hire 12 new teachers and keep five current teachers who might otherwise be lost, as well as provide busing for private school students on up to 14 days when district schools are off.

Elia wrote that the proposed budget, including the 1 percent tax override, would bring in $3.7 million in new revenue. Sixty-two percent of this new revenue would go toward public school costs in 2017-18, and 38 percent would go toward private-school costs.

Residents go to the polls May 16 to vote on the budget and tax increase. In East Ramapo it will require approval by 60 percent of voters because it proposes overriding the state tax cap that limits budgets from increasing more than 2 percent each year or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. East Ramapo's cap this year is a 1.48 percent increase.

The budget deal would help the public schools more in the long term, Elia wrote. If the district provides non-mandated busing to private schools on 14 days when public schools are closed, state reimbursement to East Ramapo for transportation costs would increase in 2018-19. The public schools would gain at least $1 million in additional aid in 2018-19 and “and future years,” Elia wrote.

East Ramapo was placed under state oversight in 2015 as a way to help improve the district's finances amid allegations of mismanagement by school officials, and as a mechanism to develop long-term solutions to improve student performance.

Under the terms of the oversight law for East Ramapo, the district was required to create a strategic academic plan in order to receive $3 million in aid from the state. The monitor points to better performance objectives, continuous monitoring and increased professional development as key factors in recent progress in East Ramapo.