Scandal-Plagued Haredi Controlled School District May Give Haredi Yeshivas Deep Discount On School Purchase

The scandal-plagued haredi-controlled East Ramapo school district may be giving a $1 million rent credit and waiving other fees if the haredi yeshiva tenants who have been renting the Colton school property buy it, even though a judge ruled earlier this year that the district does not owe the rent credit to the haredi schools.

Scandal-Plagued Haredi Controlled School District May Give Haredi Yeshivas Deep Discount On School Purchase
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

The scandal-plagued haredi-controlled East Ramapo school district may be giving a $1 million rent credit and waiving other fees if the haredi yeshiva tenants who have been renting the Colton school property buy it, the Journal News reported, even though a judge ruled earlier this year that the district does not owe the rent credit to the haredi schools.

The district is also offering to give the haredi schools tens of thousands of more dollars toward the sale in waved late rent fees along with a $93,000 refund of supposed "rent overpayment" and various other credits for repair work done on the property by the haredi schools.

If the court approves the sale, the Monsey-based Congregation Bais Malka and the Hebrew Academy for Special Children (HASC), a religious school children with special needs, will own the property for about $5 million, even though the purchase price is $6.6 million.

East Ramapo counted this $5 million in its budget this year even though the current deal had not yet been proposed.

The haredi schools have leased the property since since July 2011. During that time, East Ramapo collected about $1.3 million in rent. However, it lost more than $900,000 in additional revenue because the haredi schools did not pay the rent they owed.

Nonetheless, the sale of the property to the two haredi schools at a loss to the district will close by June 30 if the sale is approved by the court.

Many non-haredi and non-Orthodox local residents oppose the terms of the sale.

The court turned down  the sale agreement due to numerous errors in the wording and made it clear it would decide on the sale based only on the basic financial aspects of the sale and not on the 40 page preamble. The court noted it "is NOT making any findings of fact or endorsing any of the facts" contained in those pages.

The haredi school’s attorney submitted a revised version of the sale agreement to the court Friday that corrected the errors noted by the court and included the disclaimer mentioned above.

The parties are due back in court April 15 – unless the sale is approved by the court before then or the hearing is delayed due to Passover.

[Hat Tips: Devorah, Pearl of Wisdom.]

Comments

[percherondad]

This is precisely why everyone needs to write to the governor and ask that the East Ramapo School Board be taken over by the State of New York Education Dept. Of course they will go against the judge's decision. The board is all Haredi and they are essentially robbing the E. Ramapo school district to support the Hebrew Schools.Please take a moment to write to Governor Andrew M. Cuomo at the address below
https://www.governor.ny.gov

[Yochanan Lavie]

Dickhead Cuomo will always kowtow to powerful groups such as the upstate black hats and Evil Moscow-witch (who pays herself more than twice the salary of the chancellor).

[Pearl of Wisdom]

This whole court case was contrived. The BOE thought that the Judge would tell order them to give their Yeshiva friends millions in rent credit. That way, the AG couldn't fault them for making this one sided, rotten deal., I guess they were very surprised when she found that no rent credit was deserved. Let's not forget that then BOE president Aron Wieder is the guy who wrote the rent credit in the side of the contract....his kid attended the Yeshiva there.

This is nothing less than a gift of public funds to their friends. I hope they all wind up in jail. They have no shame.

[RWisler]

I wonder if the Catholic schools in this district get the same priviliges????

[S M L]

[....sigh....]

[Pearl of Wisdom]

RWisler....no, the Catholic schools are closing down and renting or selling schools. Catholics stopped listening to their leadership and they use birth control. Catholic numbers are falling every year. But trust me, they would not get buildings at a third of the value. That perk is only for the friends of BOE members.

[yehudis]

The school board has a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers, they always seem to forget that.