SPRING VALLEY — The State Education Commissioner of Education has annulled the East Ramapo school board's sale of Hillcrest Elementary School to the Congregation Yeshiva Avir Yakov.
In a critical 10-page ruling released Monday, Commissioner David Steiner sustained an appeal lodged by district parent Steve White in August to stop the sale of school to the New Square congregation for $3.2 million.
White had appealed on the grounds that the East Ramapo Board of Education had approved the sale in July 2010 at price far below the $10.2 million market value assigned to the 12-acre property by the Clarkstown Assessor's Office.
The sale price was decided after a first appraisal valued the school and land at $5.9 million. A second appraisal, which the board did not approve until nearly a week after the school sale, was obtained by the school district's attorney, Albert D'Agostino.
Steiner had issued a stay halting the sale in September.
In his report, Steiner writes that the board "abused its discretion by hastily approving the sale of Hillcrest to the Congregation and that such sale must be set aside."
White hailed the ruling as a major victory for the public school advocates in the district, about 990 of whom had signed a petition asking the board that the sale be put up for referendum.
"We have prevailed," White said, adding that the sale "was something that never should have happened."
Interim Superintendent of East Ramapo Schools Joel Klein did not immediately return a phone call this morning.
The Hillcrest school property, opened in 1960, sits on 12 acres just outside New Square on Addison Boyce Drive in New City. The school was closed in April 2010.
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