Tentative settlement in Shulamith dispute

By The Jewish Star Staff

Issue of May 28, 2010/ 15 Sivan 5770

The bitter dispute over the fate of Shulamith School for Girls in Brooklyn may soon end in divorce and a division of assets with Bnot Shulamith of Long Island. The school’s board of directors sent a letter to the parent body on Tuesday announcing a tentative settlement of a pair of lawsuits by Brooklyn parents who sought to block the sale of the school’s valuable Midwood campus.

Under the terms of the deal recorded in New York State Supreme Court, the campus would be sold, with an estimated $12 million in proceeds divided equally between the two schools. Shulamith School for Girls and Bnot Shulamith of Long Island would each become academically and financially independent.

Parents would vote on the final outcome. The letter urged parents to support the settlement, which would allow Bnot Shulamith to purchase a campus in Inwood to house the pre-school, lower and middle schools in one location, with room for a new high school in 2011 to be headed by Mrs. Rookie Billet, who was also named principal of the middle school. The proposed campus won zoning approval last June.

Before the Inwood purchase goes through, Bnot Shulamith would use a portion of the sale proceeds to pay down debt, according to a board member speaking on background.

Under the proposed agreement, the buyer of the Brooklyn campus will allow Shulamith School for Girls to remain rent-free for the 2010-11 school year. Then the school would move to a new location.

Jacob Abilevitz, a businessman and pharmacist who chairs Yeshiva Derech HaTorah, a boys’ yeshiva, is to become executive director of Shulamith School for Girls. In an interview with The Jewish Star last month, he said he would save money by combining the schools’ back-office operations.

Shulamith School for Girls has long enjoyed a reputation for academic excellence and Bnot Shulamith earned a similar reputation. Both schools have suffered since plans were announced to close the Brooklyn school and transfer its assets to Long Island.The Brooklyn school will have no ninth grade in the coming school year. The Long Island school has been strained by a lack of a central campus to house the entire school, currently housed in three separate locations — pre-school, lower school and middle school. The middle school may have to move to a new space in September.

The letter to parents said, “The days of operating the school while spread across three buildings are rapidly coming to a close. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your patience, allegiance and understanding during this time.”