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STATE OF NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT _____________________________________ In the Matter of Steven White, an aggrieved person From action of the Board of Education VERIFIED of the East Ramapo Central School District PETITION regarding the decision to sell Hillcrest Elementary School _____________________________________ TO THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION: 1. My name is Steven White and I reside in 2. On April 19, 2010, the East Ramapo School District voted to move Hillcrest Elementary School from its location on Addison Boyce Dr. in New City and reopen it in Sept 2010 in the building formerly used as Kakiat Junior High School on Viola Rd. in Spring Valley. 3. On July 28, 2010, the East Ramapo School Board voted to sell the Hillcrest Elementary School property to Yeshiva Avir Yakov of New Square, NY for $3.1 million. 4. NY State Education Law § 402 states: "Whenever the site of a schoolhouse shall have been changed, as herein provided, and after the value of such property has been appraised by the local assessor or a qualified private real property appraiser, the inhabitants of a district entitled to vote, lawfully assembled at any district meeting, shall have power, by a majority of the votes of those present and voting, to direct the sale of the former site or lot, and the buildings thereon and appurtenances or any part thereof, at such price and upon such terms as they shall deem proper; and any deed duly executed by the trustees of such district, or a majority of them, in pursuance of such direction, shall be valid and effectual to pass all the estate or interest of such school district in the premises." 5. No public vote by inhabitants has been called for or held by the school district, as required by NY Education Law, Title 9, sec 402, above. The power to direct the sale of a school is given to the public, not the trustees; therefore the vote to sell Hillcrest was illegal. 6. There are currently outstanding two appeals regarding the closing of this school by Margaret Hatton and Antonio Luciano. The sale of the school could render any decision by the commissioner moot, denying justice and preventing the commissioner from providing relief to the parents of the district who contend that the closing of the school was arbitrary and capricious and will harm the education of the children of East Ramapo. 7. An independent appraisal of the value of the Hillcrest Elementary property by a recognized expert in the field, Mr. Robert Forrest, was done at my request. His conclusion was that the fair market value of this property is $13.2 million. (PDF here) 8. The school board did not make a good faith attempt to obtain the best price for the school. There were only 3 bids for the sale of this property, all of which were millions of dollars below assessed market value, or about 70% less than the true value of the property. The property was not listed with any broker; it was put on the market in the form of a Request for Proposal only. No ads were listed in any newspaper. 9. The District has not released their appraisal through FOIL request. The value of the appraisal was not properly and publicly taken into consideration by the board members. A second appraisal was only approved after the bids had been opened and the vote to sell the school taken. 10. Hillcrest Elementary School has been improved by $3.5 million since 2001, according to the NYSED document "Building Projects on file" ( http://www.nysed.gov/STATEAID/DIST/sa777/500402.HTML ). The fact that this amount is greater than the sale amount agreed to by the board indicates that the sale amount is wildly lower than the actual value of the property. 11. Excel funding may need to be paid back to NYS. The board has not considered this impact on the actual amount the district would net from the sale of the school. 12. NY State Education law § 410 states: A public officer or school officer, who is authorized to sell or lease any property, or to make any contract in his official capacity, or to take part in making any such sale, lease or contract, who voluntarily becomes interested individually in such sale, lease or contract, directly or indirectly, except in cases where such sale, lease or contract, or payment under the same, is subject to audit or approval by the commissioner of education, is guilty of a misdemeanor. 13. There is a special relationship of school board members Aron Weider, Moshe Hopstein, Richard Stone, Eliyhu Solomon, and Morris Kohn with New Square Community. They are referred to as "Our own candidates from within the community in the village of New Square" (Attachment 3). Yeshiva Avir Yakov is part of the New Square Community. Hillcrest Elementary is directly adjacent to New Square. The New Square community has publicly stated its desire to obtain this property previously. (See attachment below). 14. By voting to sell Hillcrest Elementary, ignoring that the commissioner has not yet rendered a decision regarding the closing of the school, ignoring the available information that the school may be several times more valuable than the bids received, and listening only to the desires of those who will privately benefit from obtaining this property by having use of the property and those who will personally benefit from getting the property at a price below its true value, i.e. the village of New Square and Yeshiva Avir Yakov, these school board members have put their personal interest in Yeshiva Avir Yakov and the New Square Community above their fiduciary responsibility to the East Ramapo School District and their responsibility to the state of New York to act ethically as elected officials. WHEREFORE, Steven White respectfully requests: REQUEST FOR INTERIM RELIEF 1. I request that the Commissioner impose a stay, pursuant to 8 NYCRR 276.1, on selling Hillcrest Elementary School pending a decision on the merits of this appeal, and 2. The Commissioner order that the East Ramapo School Board shall not attempt to sell the Hillcrest Elementary School unless a vote is taken by the public directing them to do so. 3. The Commissioner order a review of communications between school board trustees Aron Weider, Moshe Hopstein, Richard Stone, Eliyhu Solomon, and Morris Kohn and the bidders who responded to the request for proposal for the sale of Hillcrest Elementary and act on any ethics or legal violations caused by the collusion between the prospective buyers and seller of the school. Aug 7, 2010: Steven White
From the newsletter "Community
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