It was past 11 p.m. at the East Ramapo district office last night and I was sitting around, like everyone else, waiting for the election results. Some people quietly chatted, a few others teamed up on the word jumble. By the time the votes were announced, the school board meeting room had filled with people representing local teachers, candidates, public school parents and the yeshiva community. School board member Suzanne Young-Mercer read off the results to a hushed audience, telling them the budget went down by a 3-to-1 margin. After that, some in the crowd applauded.

While Moshe Hopstein never provided comment to this publication in the run up to the election, he gave me a written statement last night through Aron Wieder. Both were elected to the school board yesterday. Here is Hopstein’s statement:

“I would like to thank all my supporters, friends and family for the incredible support I received from you all. Thank you!

I look forward for the challenge that lays ahead for me in the coming 3 years. My goal is to prove that we can keep and even enhance the quality of the education in the East Ramapo School District, while being cost effective and lowering the tax burden to ALL residents of this fine district.

With the help of G-d we will succeed to the benefit of all residents!!

Thank you again!!”

Wieder also made a statement to the crowd, saying he wanted to thank his family and would focus especially on special education needs as a board member. “I can assure you we will leave no one behind, the children of this entire district and the taxpayers alike,” he said.

Afterwards, I interviewed school board President Nathan Rothschild, visibly tired at the late hour, who said he wanted to thank the hard work of board members David Resnick and Steven Rosenstock, who dropped out of the race last week for what they said were personal reasons. Rothschild retained his seat in an uncontested race last night. “I guess we have to wish the new electees lots of luck. They’re replacing two board members that had an amazing effect on the district.”

The school board meets again tonight at 7:30 to discuss the budget.

Here’s the East Ramapo budget vote story in today’s paper.