Letter: LI educator savvy in Rockland?
Roosevelt School District Superintendent Dr. Deborah Wortham visits the Roosevelt Middle School and members of the school board in Roosevelt on June 4, 2013. Credit: Newsday / J. Conrad Williams, Jr.
The departing Roosevelt school district superintendent, Deborah Wortham, will need all of her Long Island savvy to solve the mess she's taking on in East Ramapo ["Roosevelt supe says goodbye," News, Oct. 9].
My peers and I -- a coalition of public school parents, taxpayers, clergy, civic organizations, alumni and local elected officials -- fought for a bill providing strong state oversight of the East Ramapo school district in Rockland County. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo endorsed the measure, which was a far milder approach than the 2002 state takeover in Roosevelt, but one that would restore integrity to a district in crisis.
The State Assembly passed the legislation in June, but Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan (R-East Northport) refused to bring it before his chamber for a vote. Without this bill, the school board can continue what former federal prosecutor Hank Greenberg concluded in his report to the Board of Regents: reckless mismanagement and favoritism toward private schools over public schools.
Andrew Mandel, Manhattan
