U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel, D-Bronx, and U.S. Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand, D-N.Y., have contacted Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius requesting additional financial aid to school districts facing an influx of Haitian refugees, Haitian immigrants and Haitian-Americans returning to the U.S. because of the recent earthquake.

Here’s the backstory: In January, East Ramapo Schools Superintendent Ira Oustatcher first reported that he expected a significant increase in enrollment as children came to the area from earthquake ravaged Haiti. (here’s the original Perspective). Local politicians took note. Rockland Legislature Chairwoman Harriet Cornell, after speaking with Nyack schools Superintendent Valencia Douglas, contacted the region’s Congressional delegation in late January alerting them to the impact of increased enrollment on local schools. Because this region, specifically Spring Valley and Nyack, have a significant Haitian population, the schools and Rockland’s Department of Social Services expected to see many people traveling here from Haiti.

On Thursday, Engel and Gillibrand issued a press release announcing their push for increase funding for HHS’  School Impact grant program, and a one-time emergency grant program for the most heavily affected school districts, saying they are necessary for schools to properly accommodate the children.

We’ve already seen the financial impact on East Ramapo. The district has a jobs posting on its Web site, seeking four teachers and counselor to handle the expected student increase. The job descriptions specify these are “bilingual” positions —  the district is looking for people who speak Haitian-Creole. This “Special Job Posting” is, the district Web site states, “in order to support our incoming Haitian refugee students and families.”

Today, 21 people graduated from Rockland County Drug Court , the largest class in the program’s 12-year history. Drug Courts aren’t new, and in fact, have grown more common around the country.

But this graduating class also included eight who had been convicted of felony driving while intoxicated. That’s a new path for Drug Courts, and Rockland is among the few to allow DWI violators to enter the program. The speaker in today’s ceremony was Sheila Abrams of Westchester MADD. Rockland County Court Judge Charles Apotheker (who runs the Drug Court program) met her during a Journal News/LoHud.com Editorial Spotlight panel discussion about drunken driving. Abrams’ two children were killed in a drunken driving crash. Abrams said it’s hard for many to understand why treatment is so important, and why she supports treatment over incarceration. “The victim’s first thought is, I wnt them to go to jail, they destroyed my family, I want them to go to jail,” she said, reflecting on her own pain and anger. But, Abrams said, the underlying issue of addiction won’t be addressed there. And that is the hard work, and the important work. “What you did today was historic,” she said of the Drug Court graduates.

Rockland District Attorney Thomas Zugibe also addressed the graduates and the near 100 supporters there to witness their accomplishment. “People say, ‘don’t you think you’re going soft on crime,’” he said of his support of Drug Court programs. “My job is to keep the public safe,” the DA said, “and there’s no better example of a prevention program than Drug Court.”

And as Zugibe, Apotheker and many of the graduates pointed out, “prevention program” isn’t synonymous with “easy.” The attendees are monitored (DWI offenders wear anklets that test their sobriety, the so-called “Lindsay Lohan” bracelet) and randomly drug-tested. They have to attend support groups and one-on-one counseling. Some of today’s graduates had setbacks, and ended up staying in longer.

More than one graduate made clear that, in many ways, a jail stint was less work than Drug Court. But, as one Drug Court grad said, “corrections facilities—they don’t correct anything.” Drug Court’s rewards can include a sober life, and a full one, making it worth the work.

“I was not a grown man,” one graduate said, reflecting on how he came into the program, “I was a nuisance . . . I was a menace to society.” He said now, “I’m back in college. I have a nice little GPA.”

About 30 people crammed into U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel’s office in West Nyack this morning to discuss immigration changes for Haitians in light of the Jan. 12 earthquake, and how those changes are expected to impact Rockland and other areas in New York that have significant numbers of people of Haitian descent.

Engel brought U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Regional District Director Andrea Quarantillo to answer questions about the recently granted Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for Haitians who are already in the U.S.  She gave a brief concise description of TPS, and answered questions and took suggestions from elected leaders and community leaders who run various nonprofits that aid the Haitian-American community.

But the last question underscored why we were there. As the meeting was wrapping up, Engel allowed one more question from a man amid the standing-room-only crowd in the small offices on West Nyack Road. He asked Quarantillo’s advice on how to get his two children out of Haiti, one who is a U.S. citizen but one who is not. “I don’t even know where they are,” he said after explaining their passport status and some of the government agencies he’s already worked with. “I heard a neighbor took them in.”

That’s what all the policy and procedure is supposed to accomplish — helping people find their loved ones, and reunite with them.

CIS, the State Department and  government agencies will continue to deal with these concerns locally. Last week, we reported about local officials readying for an uptick in immigration from Haiti. Rockland Department of Social Services Commissioner Susan Sherwood discussed the plans she’s been making with her staff, and the expectation that because of the strong Haitian-American community locally, specifically in Spring Valley, we could expect to see many Haitians fleeing the post-earthquake destruction to come here to join family. East Ramapo Schools Superintendent Ira Oustatcher said last week that one child who had left Haiti had already enrolled in his district. Today, a spokeswoman for Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern, said six children had enrolled in that district. Nyack’s schools Superintendent Valencia Douglas, on behalf of other Rockland’s School Superintendents, has also expressed concern about preparing for children coming from Haiti. At today’s meeting, Rockland County Legislature Chairwoman Harriet Cornell sought further discussions on the impact of public schools from children coming here, a topic Engel acknowledged needed discussion.

But for today, the focus continues about who can come to the U.S. and how to get them there. Engel said he wants to make sure “no Haitian gets deported from this country. I can’t think of anything crueler than that.”

Up to one third of East Ramapo school district’s students are of Haitian descent, estimates schools Superintendent Ira Oustatcher. His schools have experienced the heartbreak of the Haiti disaster. “We have a bus driver whose six family members died,” he said. And, he emotionally recalled, a father came to one school to seek help. He wanted to know how to tell his two children, who attend the school, that their mother had died.

With so many ties to the Caribbean nation, Oustatcher expected  that sooner or later, his office would see children of families fleeing the aftermath of the 7.0 magnitude quake enrolling in the East Ramapo schools.

That day has already come. Oustatcher said a student has been enrolled from Haiti.

Now, he says, districts like his, with large Haitian-American populations — in the Lower Hudson Valley that includes Nyack, North Rockland and White Plains — need to prepare for more. “We are going to start seeing families moving into the area,” he said this afternoon. “If I was a person who had family here … I’m packing up and leaving,” he said of those displaced, homeless, hurt by the disaster.

Oustatcher said that his and other communities need to start thinking about saving resources for those who come seeking refuge. “They don’t own winter coats — it’s Haiti,” he noted. Oustatcher said he was surprised that a student had come to his schools so soon. But many Haitian-American citizens, and those that hold green cards, do not necessarily need to go through the long immigration process to get here. “People go back and forth,” he said

“We’re having discussions of what that means for our district,” Oustacher said, and those discussions are taking place in other districts. “It will test our mettle,” he said.

Isn’t such a challenge, to educate all, in spite of obstacles, the mission of public schools? Oustatcher agreed. “It’s a great humanitarian moment,” he said.

Meanwhile, the East Ramapo district has rallied support for its students and their parents in the wake of the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti. Counseling has been available throughout the school day, and even on weekends.  Many children have been seeking out support from staff during the school day.

The school district and students are engaged in fund-raising efforts, Oustatcher said, with each building holding drives. Other districts in the Lower Hudson Valley are mounting similar efforts.

One Ramapo High School sophmore, Nelie Exallis, is running a coin collection to help pay  $2,500 needed to prep a rescue pumper firetruck that is to be sent to Haiti. Other school districts are mounting charity efforts as well, many driven by the students.

Recall the American bald eagles that had taken up residence out front of ShopRite in West Nyack, along the Hackensack River? Well, today staff writer Laura Incalcaterra reports that the birds have been harassed by people jumping the fence to see them, and one guy threw hot dogs at them (like they were feeding pellets at the zoo!?!) and another blew a whistle, and then banged cymbals to get the birds more active.

Eagles are a protected species, and as Laura notes in the article, harassing, disturbing or injuring a bald eagle is a federal offense and carries a penalty of up to $100,000 and one year in jail for a first offense.

I happened upon the eagles last weekend, when I was grocery shopping and a crowd of shoppers began to form, staring quietly in awe of the birds of prey. But now, others are seeking out the eagles, and not using their best bird manners.

LoHud forum posters had some eagle-eyed observations on the whole scenario. Some said The Journal News should have kept the eagles’ location under wraps, for their protection (note that ShopRite is across Route 59 from the Palisades Center, hardly bucolic). Others said it was the responsibility of the people who were acting out, not the paper, that should be blamed. As one poster pointed out:

This is an amazing opportunity for people to see these majestic birds up close, but I’m afraid someone is going to get hurt. Drivers coming around the corner are looking in the woods and not on the road and might hit someone and people are standing in the road looking in the woods and not paying attention to the cars pulling out of spots.

When the first two or three deer appeared in my residential neighborhood everyone said “Oh how lovely – nature on the doorstep”. Twenty years later, they ain’t so cute.

STAFF PHOTOS: At left, a bald eagle flies over the Hackensack River that flows in front of ShopRite in West Nyack. At right, some of the people who have been showing up to view the birds. The humans have exhibited rather tacky behavior, making loud noises, including bangin cymbals.

The news of a devastating earthquake just outside Port-au-Prince has riveted the large and politically active Haitian-American community in Spring Valley.  The catastrophe has touched so many here, which was obvious this morning at a press conference at Ramapo Town Hall.

Ramapo Town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence opened up the conference by expressing his concerns, in both English and Creole, for the nation that has such strong ties to our region. He had spent a solid 20 minutes calling up different elected officials and community leaders, most from the Haitian community. St. Lawrence has been to Haiti several times, and he and Spring Valley Trustee Joseph Desmaret, who was also in attendance, are chairman and vice chairman respectively, of the Haitian Solid Waste Authority (St. Lawrence is chairman of the Rockland Solid Waste Authority) and he spoke in great detail about the area where the earthquake hit, and about the nearby capital, Port-au-Prince, where he had been just months before.

The connection between Spring Valley and Haiti was underscored by the number of local officials of Haitian descent who spoke and referenced their own missing family members. Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin was awaiting word on her husband, Ronald. Rose Leandre, the head of HACSO, a nonprofit, said she had just dropped her mom off at the airport Monday to return to Haiti and hadn’t heard from her. Another man mentioned his wife and son were missing. Two women stood, arms around another, fighting back tears. Another wept quietly during the press conference.  “Every single Haitian-American has family in Haiti,” said Spring Valley Trustee Demeza Delhomme.

Many in the group were determined to help coordinate relief efforts, even as they were so desperately seeking information about their loved ones. It demonstrated not only how a relatively new immigrant group remains linked to its homeland, but how Haiti’s long though often troubled legacy of democracy has fostered such deep community and political activism. Though the Haitian community in Rockland has grown tremendously in the last decade (estimates are that more than 30,000 people of Haitian decent live in the Spring Valley area), there are Haitian families that have lived here three, even four decades. Rockland County Legislator Jacques Michel, at his swearing-in ceremony in 2008, spoke of the Haitian freedom fighters who came to fight in the Revolutionary War, demonstrating Haiti’s long commitment to democracy.

Find out how to -How-you-can-help” target=”_blank”>here, and in tomorrow’s Journal News.

AP PHOTO: A woman stands in the rubble of her home Wednesday, the day after an earthquake hit Port-au-Prince.

Plenty of people weighed in with forum comments on today’s story on the dilemma parents face when arranging bathroom trips with kids, and the concept of the “family bathroom.”

This has become a big talker since a 7-year-old girl was molested in the women’s restroom at the Loew’s 21-plex movie theater at the Palisades Center. The dad was waiting right outside for her, and she was only in the restroom at the crowded theater for three minutes. But the perpetrator was apparently already in the restroom, waiting.

 The family bathroom—called “companion care” restrooms by the American Restroom Association—got lots of support, but so did the idea of just hiring an attendant for public bathrooms. Others just said, don’t care what people think, and go in with your kid. I’ve seen family bathrooms at Grand Central Terminal and the Garden State Plaza. There are attendants in every bathroom at the piers in Wildwood, N.J.

Forum posters talked about memories of being dragged to the ladie’s room when they were young boys, or making sure their daughters go before they leave on a trip to the mall with dad, to avoid any problems. But, sometimes despite the best planning, nature calls. Recently, I was with my sister and she took my 19-year-old nephew, who is autistic, into the women’s room at Radio City Music Hall because he had to go and there were no dads nearby. (My sister’s technique is to wait until the bathroom’s empty, or if that won’t work, just walk in and say loudly that you are coming in, he has to go, and sorry for any inconvenience. She said it’s rare for anyone to comment. Parenting, politeness and “p.c. behavior” don’t always mesh.)

In the last week, we’ve heard about two Rockland officials looking to Albany for their next gig: Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, just elected to his fifth two-year term, is considering  a run for lieutenant governor. The other guy, Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, ran for that job last time around, and now is considered a likely candidate for the state comptroller slot. News of Vanderhoef’s having eyes for higher office came just a day after he was sworn in for his fifth four-year term.

Lots of buzz about these two possible runs, but for different reasons. St. Lawrence is controversial in his hometown, where development is a major issue. St. Lawrence has a nemesis in the activist group Preserve Ramapo, which has cited St. Lawrence’s policies during his tenure as town supervisor for the rapid growth in portions of the town, especially in the allowable density in the religious enclaves in and around Monsey.

Vanderhoef has been criticized (and was in the last campaign) for seeking myriad other government jobs while he’s county exec. In 2002, he ran for Congress against Democratic powerhouse Eliot Engel (no doubt a favor to the party that could bode well for if and when he throws his hat into the ring for whichever position he wants this time around).  In 2004, he tried to become Rockland Community College’s president (which would have fit him well) but was asked by then-Gov. George Pataki to stay on as county exec (and, that’s another plus in the party-faithful column that he did). He was asked to run for comptroller during the 2006 election, but then he decided to go for lieutenant governor instead. Oh, 20/20 hindsight! By the time the election actually came around, then-Comptroller Alan Hevesi had become the focus of an investigation into the use of state money and personnel, so Vanderhoef would have been in a much better place for a win. As a lieutenant gubernatorial candidate, he faced the Eliot Spitzer-David Paterson combo. Spitzer had gained incredible steam (later, we would find out that he was more like his famous quote, a “f—- steamroller,” and he had ethical issues of his own) so the governor-lieutenant governor race was a skate for the Democrats.

Now, St. Lawrence has run for statewide offices, too, including state Assembly (his dad was an assemblyman), state Senate, but not as a sitting elected official.

Should Vanderhoef focus his efforts in Rockland, and stop job-shopping other places? Some think so; others see it’s part and parcel of politics.

If he runs, and then if he wins, the Rockland County Legislature, with a comfortable Democratic majority, gets to name his replacement.

Yes, the Democrats are still in the majority in the Senate. But it’s razor thin, and today,  Senate Majority Conference Leader John L. Sampson appointed two Republicans to key chairmanships. Rockland’s own Sen. Thomas P. Morahan takes back his longstanding leadership role as Chairman of the Committee on Mental Health and Hygiene, and Sen. George Maziarz, who’s been a critic of the Power Authority,  is named chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Telecommunications. Benefits for Dems? “Bipartisanship” … and when Morahan bucked the GOP to support the Green Jobs bill, that went a long way to pursuading others to follow, so showing him respect can pay off. And, he really did some heavy lifting over the last year or two to launch a “Hudson Valley Delegation” among state senators who represent our region. Maybe the Albany games are getting wearing? Let’s hope. Benefits for Morahan? He’s a longtime advocate in mental health issues, and it’s a powerful role.

Here’s the full press release from Morahan’s office:

NEW YORK STATE SENATE                     Senator Thomas P. Morahan, 38^th District                                           Room 606 –  Legislative Office Building                                                                        Albany, New York  12247

                    SENATE DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP APPOINTS                                          TWO REPUBLICAN SENATORS TO  

MAJOR COMMITTEE CHAIRMANSHIPS

Senate Majority Conference Leader John L. Sampson, today appointed two Republican Senators to major committee chairmanships. Senator Thomas P. Morahan (R-New City) was appointed Chairman of the Committee on Mental Health and Hygiene, and Senator George Maziarz (R-Newfane) was appointed Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Telecommunications.

“Never before has it been more important for us to put partisanship aside and renew our commitment to putting the people first,” said Senate Majority Conference Leader John L. Sampson.  “These are thoughtful and principled senators who have worked with our members in the past to implement smart policies that benefit all New Yorkers. They are also dedicated and engaged members of this Chamber who can bridge the gap that crippled this body for too long. The steps we have taken today will make the Senate a more bipartisan, and effective institution for the people of New York.”

“I applaud the appointment of Senator Morahan to serve as Chair of the Senate Committee on Mental Health. He is a smart and effective public servant, committed to working in a bi-partisan fashion. Senator Morahan and I have served as co-chairs for the Hudson Valley Delegation these past several months and during that time I’ve witnessed first-hand the Senator’s interest in welcoming diverse dialogue in an effort to find sensible solutions to improve the quality of life of New Yorkers in our districts and across the state,” said Senator Jeff Klein, Senate Deputy Majority Leader (D-Bronx/Westchester)

Senator Morahan said, “My work in the area of mental health is one of the most rewarding and enriching experiences of my life and, as Chair of the Mental Health Committee, I look forward to partnering with the advocates and others who share this passion. Senator Sampson and Senator Klein are my friends, as well as public servants who understand that a good idea is not Republican or Democrat. I’m pleased to work with my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to restore integrity to this great Chamber and focus on sensible public policy for the upcoming legislative session.”

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As I scurried Sunday into ShopRite in West Nyack, another shopper in front of me came to a dead stop, staring off to our left, and exclaimed, “Look at that!”

And there they were, dipping down toward the Hackensack River, which is behind a fence in the supermarket’s back parking lot: Two bald eagles. Now, I’m no ornithologist, or even a bird fancier, but he and other shoppers were convinced that these magestic brown birds with the white feathered heads were the real deal, and so was I. What a sight, across busy Route 59 from the Palisades Center, such natural wonders.

I saw one woman taking pictures (I know her from years ago and she’s a very talented photographer) so if anyone has a good jpeg, email them to me at ncutler@lohud.com and I’ll put them here, or if you have them on your own blog or website, send me a link and I’ll put them here.