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Students urge voters to pass East Ramapo budget to address building and course shortages
Summary
Several Ramapo High School students urged the community to vote for the district budget to fund building repairs, restore courses and student services.
Multiple Ramapo High School students used the public comment period May 20 to press the East Ramapo community to vote for the school budget, citing unfinished repairs, boarded windows and cuts to advanced coursework.
“...if this budget is successfully passed, then the district can use reserve money of around 5,000,000 towards repairs,” said Francisco Alicia, a senior at Ramapo High School and a member of the New York Civil Liberties Union Teen Activist Project. He described renovations to the nurse’s office that have dragged on roughly six months and said window conditions in some classrooms were “being held up by boards like a plank.”
Jaden Kong, a senior and Ramapo High School valedictorian, said the district has cut advanced courses and that “we don't have an AP physics already, which is an integral course alongside calculus for aspiring engineers and STEM students.” He urged the community to pass the budget to restore coursework and opportunities for college-bound students.
Naeika Charles, a 12th grader and member of the NYCLU teen activist project, told the board that student-support services — guidance, counseling and mental-health resources — are “stretched too thin” and called on the community to vote for “equity, opportunity, and the future of East Ramapo.” Allen Cruz, another senior, reinforced pleas for safe buildings and updated classrooms.
In response to public comments later in the meeting, Interim Superintendent Mr. DeCarlo told students the district had budgeted about $5.2 million that could be placed into a capital reserve fund if the budget passed. “We have about $5,200,000 to do some of the work that we normally can't do,” DeCarlo said, and added the board planned to “set those monies aside” and to draft a policy for doing so. He cautioned that restoring facilities “is not gonna happen in a year or 2.”
The students’ remarks occurred during the public comment portion of the board meeting; several students explicitly asked listeners to vote before polls closed that day.
