Schools

State Education Commissioner Voids East Ramapo School Lease

New York State Education Commissioner John King Jr. issued a decision on Monday annulling the East Ramapo School District’s lease of the Hillcrest Elementary School to Congregation Yeshiva Avir Yakov of New Square. The commissioner ruled on the petition filed by Robert Forrest who opposed the lease and claimed the district had not marketed the school and was renting it for less than fair market value.

The Clarkstown School District had leased the school, located in New City, in 2010 after a mysterious odor at the Laurel Plains Elementary School sickened students and staff. 

Hillcrest has been the subject of numerous appeals to the state education commissioner since April 2010 when the East Ramapo School Board declared it as surplus property and voted to close it.  Then a move by the school board to sell the school to the congregation was challenged with King denying the sale in June 2011. While the sale was being contested, the school was leased to the Clarkstown district and then the congregation, which negotiated a second lease.

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The district signed a second lease with the congregation for September 2011 to August 2012 with options to renew the least with four one-year extensions. The rent was $19,000 monthly for the first year with increases of two percent for each subsequent year and an additional $2,000 monthly fee giving the congregation the “right of first refusal” if the school was put up for sale. 

Forrest, who is president of Save Our Schools, contended the board did not make a “good faith attempt” to obtain “fair market rent” for Hillcrest. He stated the board did not advertise the school’s availability, list it with a broker or issue a Request for Proposals and gave preferential treatment to the congregation. Forrest said the rent charged was 60 percent below its market value and deprived the financially strapped district of much needed funds.

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“The property was leased to Congregation Yeshiva Avir Yakov for approximately $252,000,” said Forrest on Tuesday. “In comparison, another school in East Ramapo was being leased by the District for approx. $760,000 per year. The Hillcrest lease equates to an economic loss in education dollars of $508,000 per year to the children of the East Ramapo Central School District.”

In King’s decision, he noted the board acknowledged it did not market the school but that it claimed that the rent was reasonable and leasing the school served the district’s best interests.

King wrote,” I cannot find, on this record, that the board took reasonable steps to ensure that it was getting the best deal possible in this instance.”

In voiding the lease, King directed the board before selling or leasing the school to “take all steps necessary to ensure that it makes a reasonably informed decision, and obtains the best deal possible, including taking any and all reasonable steps to assess the property’s fair market value or fair market rental value.”

A call seeking comment on the decision from East Ramapo School Superintendent Dr. Joel Klein was not returned. 

 


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