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Friday, July 8, 2011

Morris Kohn, new East Ramapo school board chief, stresses unity










SPRING VALLEY — The East Ramapo Board of Education voted Wednesday night to tap Morris Kohn as president during the district's annual organization meeting.

Kohn, a Spring Valley resident, was first elected to a three-year term in 2009 and is considered a member of the board's six-person ultra-Orthodox/Hasidic Jewish community voting bloc.

But in his first public comments as president, Kohn struck a note of unity and pledged "to do everything to keep this board unified." He takes over for former president Aron Wieder, who did not seek re-election.

Newcomer Daniel Schwartz of New Hempstead was elected vice president.

During the hour-and-a-half meeting, the board worked through a laundry list of personnel items.

That included reappointing Catherine Russell as district clerk and executive assistant to Superintendent Joel Klein at a salary of $68,654. Israel Biera was re-appointed district treasurer at a salary of $33,765.

The board also voted 6-3 to keep Albert D'Agostino, of the Long Island-based law firm Minerva and D'Agostino, as the school district's attorney. He is paid at a rate of $250 per hour and $125 per hour for travel.

Member Stephen Price voted against the reappointment, and said the board should look for a law firm in Rockland to cut travel costs.

He was joined by members Suzanne Young-Mercer and JoAnne Thompson. Members Moshe Hopstein, Moses Friedman, Eliyahu Solomon and Yehuda Weissmandl voted to reappoint D'Agostino, as did Kohn and Schwartz.

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