The haredi-controlled East Ramapo school board's president, Daniel Schwartz, notorious for finding ways to stop public comment at board meetings and for his lack of concern for the district's children, called parents and activists "miscreants" and accused them of being part of a "cabal." Schwartz did this as he introduced a motion to move all public comment to the end of board meetings rather than in the middle of them, making it difficult for students to stay late enough to comment. Schwartz was also previously been caught motioning to a board member to leave the room to break the board's quorum and end public comment.
In other East Ramapo school board news, the board chose two substitute members to replace the only non-Jewish board members. Those two non-Jewish members resigned after allegedly suffering through intimidation and shunning by the haredi and Orthodox board members (none of whom have children in East Ramapo's public schools).
Yossi Gestetner, the haredi PR flack, did not make the cut.
However, the board did choose one Orthodox Jew, Nathan Losman. The other substitute is Bernard Charles.
This means 8 of 9 board members are Orthodox or haredi.
In other developments, a grievance has been filed against the board's attorney, Albert D'Agastino, for swearing at a 17-year-old honor student and challenging the student to a fistfight. The incident took place at the end of the previous board meeting.