"This serves to reinforce public opinion that [board president] Yehuda [Weissmandl] and the rest of the board does not care about community opinion or [about] trying to find common ground on any level."
Above: Yehuda Weissmandl
Scandal-Plagued, Haredi-Controlled School Board To Reappoint Law Firm It Pledged To Remove
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The agenda for tomorrow's organization meeting of the scandal-plagued, haredi-controlled East Ramapo Central School District is posted online (and below as a PDF file). At the top of page 3 is item VIII:
School Attorney
It is recommended that the Board of Education appoint the firm of Minerva & D’Agostino as School District Attorney to serve at the pleasure of the Board beginning on July 1, 2014, at the rate of $250 per hour and $125 per hour for travel together with reimbursement for any actual disbursements in connection with the foregoing.
Minerva & D’Agostino is the controversial law firm whose attorney, Christopher Kirby, threatened to punch a parent, challenged him to a fight and called several female parents obscene names last year.
Kirby was removed from service to East Ramapo after videos of his horrible behavior went viral, and Minerva & D’Agostino and the board mutually agreed that the firm would be replaced by a new law firm as soon as one could be found.
It is now approaching one year after those incidents and instead of getting a new law firm, the board is moving to rehire Minerva & D’Agostino for another school year.
"This serves to reinforce public opinion that [board president] Yehuda [Weissmandl] and the rest of the board does not care about community opinion or [about] trying to find common ground on any level," a local activist and parent, Peggy Hatton, told FailedMessiah.com.
The New York State Education Department recently appointed a fiscal monitor for the troubled school district, and various aspects of the board's previous conduct are thought to be under state and federal investigation.