Olivia Castor, former Spring Valley student activist, now serves on fund created by East Ramapo settlement

Olivia Castor, a 2013 graduate of Spring Valley High School, helped organize student activism in Spring Valley and later testified in a 2017 lawsuit challenging how members of the East Ramapo Central School District were elected.

Castor, who attended Harvard College and graduated in 2017 with a joint degree in social studies and African American studies, was active in campus racial-justice groups, according to the transcript excerpt. The Spring Valley NAACP and the New York Civil Liberties Union sued the East Ramapo Central School District in 2017, arguing that the district—s method of electing school board members diluted Black and Latino votes; Castor testified in that lawsuit, the transcript states.

The transcript says the lawsuit was won in 2020 and that the settlement totaled nearly $4,000,000. That money was used to create a fund to benefit public school students in the East Ramapo district; the transcript says Castor serves on the board that decides which projects receive funding. The excerpt also says Castor is an attorney at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago.

While a student at Spring Valley High School, the transcript reports, Castor co-founded the East Whippetoe student coalition to give students a voice; she led rallies, published articles and helped organize a 2013 walkout in which the transcript says "hundreds of students" marched to district headquarters to protest program cuts. The transcript also notes her participation in Spring Valley extracurriculars, including soccer, cheerleading, forensics, the Spring Valley NAACP youth council and Key Club.

The excerpt does not provide the formal name of the lawsuit, specific legal citations, board-selection details, or a precise breakdown of how the settlement funds are allocated. It does not record any formal action taken at the meeting from which this excerpt is drawn; the material in the transcript is biographical and descriptive.