The Kiryas Joel Union Free School District Board of Education has voted to alter the district’s boundaries to conform to the village boundaries if the village annexes 500 acres of land under discussion.

Superintendent Joel Petlin said there was concern by some on the impact to the Monroe-Woodbury School District, much like that which occurred in the East Ramapo School District in Spring Valley.

“The large number of non-public school parents would ultimately have an impact on school budgets and school elections for board members and by giving consent to the alteration of boundaries, if and when the annexation does occur, we have removed that possibility from being on the table,” Petlin said.

The Kiryas Joel school district has some 200 special needs children enrolled. The remaining 10,000 students in the village attend religious schools known as yeshivas.

(Source: MidHudsonNews.com)