Concerned parents with children in the Hempstead Union Free School District are asking Gov. Andrew Cuomo for help with the district's low graduation rates and test scores.

Parents called on Gov. Cuomo to sign a bill presented to him earlier this summer, which would make the state Education Department intervene in Hempstead and create a three-person state monitoring board.

The board would have the power to pick superintendents and approve or disapprove all of the district expenses.

As News 12 has previously reported, less than 40 percent of high school students in Hempstead graduated in the 2016-2017 school year.

News 12 spoke with the president of the Hempstead Board of Education David Gates, who says the board is against the state monitors, and they hope the governor vetoes the bill.

Members of the board say the district is already improving on its own.

Gates says the district has been working with a state-appointed advisor for the past two years, and members of the school board say the estimated graduation rate for this past school year is over 60 percent.

They say money spent on state monitors could be used elsewhere in the district.