On January 14, public school parents in East Ramapo filed a petition in State Supreme Court in Albany, asking the court to direct the NYS Board of Regents and the State Education Department to take concrete remedial action to safeguard their children’s right to a sound basic education as guaranteed by the New York State Constitution.
Read the ELC press release and see the Petition below.
Education Law Center 1-19-16 – ER Parents Sue SED & Board of Regents
Willie Trotman, President of the Spring Valley chapter of the NAACP, and Wilbur Aldridge, Regional Director of the Westchester/Mid Hudson Region NAACP, issued a lovely tribute to Patricia Simmons, former principal of an elementary school in East Ramapo who died recently. Please read the tribute below.
Nancy Cutler, ncutler@lohud.com The troubles of East Ramapo — the community tensions, the growing needs among public-school students, the budget cuts and concomitant dwindling education quality — are well-documented.
Yet children in East Ramapo keep rising. That’s because of people like Patricia Simmons, former principal of Fleetwood Elementary. No matter the hurdles her school and her students faced, she wouldn’t give up, wouldn’t let staff give up and certainly wouldn’t let children give up.
Alex Taylor, artaylor@lohud.com Simmons, 63, died Dec. 27 of cancer. She had been principal at Fleetwood Elementary since 2001, earning a reputation as a forceful advocate of students and teachers during a period of widespread cuts and turmoil in the troubled district.
