The Easter Seals Rip Off
Public Money to Private Interests
Why do we have to borrow another $4.0 million dollars to build a new track, when we are giving away the Columbus Avenue School for a net rent of $1 a year. That's ONE DOLLAR a year! If we leased it at a market rent how much do you think a tenant would pay? If we sold the building, how much do you think the district would get? Enough for a new track? Maybe a new roof at the High School?
When the roof at the Columbus Avenue School needs to be replaced, are we going to pay for that too?
Why would anyone in their right mind borrow four million dollars without considering selling an asset worth as much and which it is costing over $300,000 a year in continuing bond payments. In the first 8 years of the Easter Seals give away, the school district has lost $2.4 million. An incredible waste at the expense of the children of the district.
CAS Ground Breaking, No BOE Members Attend?
After holding two annual fundraisers Easter Seals has begun installation of a playground at the Columbus Avenue School. Easter Seals leases the entire property for a net of $1 as the Valhalla school district taxpayers continue to make payments on a 1991 bond totalling $2.4 in the first eight years of the Easter Seals lease. Taxpayers will be asked to raise their own taxes even further on October 16th to pay for a track that the board of education destroyed in an illegal fill for fields scheme, Valhalla continues to lease this building which could be sold or at the very least, leased profitably at a market rent. Under the terms of the lease with Easter Seals, plans for any improvements to the property must be submitted to and approved by the board of education. As there is no record of the board of education approving such plans, we can only assume this work is in violation of that lease. So look through the pictures of the sand breaking for the new playground and see if you can find the Valhalla Board of Education or the so excited Superintendent. We, the taxpayers own the building and we will own the "Community" playground. So why is only Brian Wolfson there for the photo op? He has no time to figure out how much we spent on the fill for fields scam, or how much we will spend on the proposed $4.0 million bond but he has time for this circus? I guess the auditors are gone now.
Join the discussion about the Easter Seals Ripoff
According to the blog, much more is wrong with the Easter Seals program than an illegal $1 a year lease. We know that the grounds around the Columbus Avenue building continue to deteriorate. Broken fences, an unkept sandbox playground, crumbling walls and often unattended garbage cans. But apparently, if the blogger is correct and we believe she is, more than the Valhalla taxpayers are being ripped off. We know that Easter Seals has held two golf fund raisers and now an auction of Sports Memorabilia. We know there is no new playground and no plans for a new playground. We know that back in August the BOE observed that a fire door is illegally propped open and that the closing mechanism on that door is broken and it swings cled with terrific force. Bob May was told to fix it. As of November it has not been fixed and is still propped open. Now we learn that the BOCES class that is in that building is not freeing space in VRS, this is a new program and we are not even sure they are leasing space from the Valhalla taxpayers, could they be subleasing space from Easter Seals? Checking back through the sparse Valhalla board minutes, we can't find a new BOCES lease. Many of us figured this class was part of an existing BOCES deal, but apparently not. Are these special need preschool children really with out their proper services? Are school district throughout the county really paying for services not provided? Are we, the Valhalla Union Free School District sending our children to these programs, paying Easter Seals and not getting the required services?
For those of you are uncomfortable with these questions, ask them yourselves. Read the Blog and find out.
As we reported, the Easter Seals lease is costing the district over $2.4 million. Now you and the board can see just what it costs us for heat and electric for the Columbus Avenue School building. Over $28,000 last winter, up 21% from the year before even though fuel consumption in a warmer winter was down 10%. Utilities alone already account for 30% of the fixed "maintenance reimbursement" paid by Easter Seals.
This information is never publicly disclosed and when the Superintendent says she was shocked that energy costs will be up 30% in the coming year, you have to wonder if she or anyone on the board looks at the bills they already are paying.
But this is not all that is paid for utilities. We estimate, based on 2003 figures provided by the NYS Comptroller, an additional $14,000 a year is paid by Valhalla to NYSEG for electric at CAS. We also gave Easter Seals the entire phone system and continue to pay for phone service at the building, we pay for security, grounds keeping, water & sewer, rubbish and water and sewer. And lets not forget the $300,000 a year for the 1991 maintenance bond.
Do you remember when they told us the Easter Seals Lease was a money maker? Why are we giving away this asset? Why are we subsidizing Easter Seals? The property is an eyesore. The upper playground is not swept. The lower playground sand appears never to be raked for glass and animal droppings. The new handicapped accessible playground that Easter Seals raised funds for last year, is nowhere to be found. Fences are broken. But Easter Seals is making a fortune, charging top dollar and paying one dollar. When will this Board address this incredible waste of a valuable district asset?
Real Estate Amateurs
1. The Valhalla School district is leasing the entire Columbus Avenue School Property to Easter Seals of NY for $1 a year. It is not just for 10,000 square feet as the state Comptroller was told. It include the entire building and grounds.
2. The $1 a year lease was prepared by a school attorney at the direction of Tom Kelly and Brian Wolfson, who offered it to Easter Seals five months before the school board voted to "enter in to negotiations" on leasing the school.
3. Dr. Kelly even applied, with his tenant, Easter Seals, to the New York State Office of Children and Family Services for a day care license before the board voted to enter into negotiations on a lease. Click here to see the lease prepared by school attorneys at the direction of the superintendent and business manager at taxpayer expense.
4. It is a ten year lease, with a ten year option. There is no provision increasing the $1 a year rent over twenty years
5. Valhalla pays for maintenance and utilities on the building. The $110,000 annual payment which the district claims as rent is a reimbursement for security, utilities, snow removal and maintenance that any other tenant would pay in addition to market rent and it is all that Easter Seals pays. Utilities alone are now over $40,000 a year and with fuel prices continuing to rise our losses will mount. $300,000 is paid for a maintence bond.
6. The the former superintendent’s claim that Easter Seals paid $500,000 for "improvements" to Columbus Avenue, was a lie. The lease requires Easter Seals to provide such documentation to the school district and the New York State office of Children and Family services must review and approve such improvements. Neither the district nor the Office of Children and Family services has any proposal, permit, invoice or correspondence evidencing any major capital improvements. Please visit the Columbus Avenue site. See the broken retaining wall, the rusted swings, broken and in disrepair. See the broken iron fence just a few feet from the main entrance. See the broken chain link fence. Our tenant is not even keeping up the property, much less improving it.
7. The school district has a continuing bond payment of $300,000 for work done on the Columbus Avenue School in 1991. The district pays $300,000 ut of funds meant for children’s education to pay the bond so that Easter Seals can rent the building for $1.8. According to the district's Voyages newsletter in 2004, only 24 Valhalla students use the after school program offered by Easter Seals exclusively for Valhalla residents. Yet the district told the state Comptroller that 70 students were enrolled in Easter Seals daycare. Even if that number was 1,500, why are taxpayers subsidizing this private Park Avenue corporation?
9. To secure board approval of the $1 a year lease, school board members were told that if the district received market rent, the district would have to pay School, Town and County real estate taxes on the property. Another lie and this one they told each other! The truth is school districts are never subject to paying real estate taxes.
10. In a districtwide mailing Sideshow Tom Kelly claimed that Easter Seals had committed to installing playground improvements at the Columbus Avenue School. Really? We are five years into their sweetheat (illegal) lease and there are no improvements. In September, 2005 and again in September 2006 Easter Seals held a fundraising golf tournament with the specific purpose of raising funds to install a new playground at the Columbus Avenue School. It is Novemenr 2006 and the playground now has 3 replacement swings. Where did that fundraising money go? The playground and grounds in general are still falling apart, not even being maintained properly.
School Districts are government agencies organized to operate under the laws of the State of New York. Employees of the school district and even boards of education are not permitted to use tax dollars to subsidize privately run, un-mandated pre-school and after-school programs. By ignoring state law requiring districts to lease property belonging to the taxpayers at market rent, the board of education is effectively subsidizing Easter Seals, a Park Ave corporation, and its clients.
The resources of the school district must be directed to the education of the children of the district who are of age and only as prescribed by law. This matter has been brought to the attention of the New York State Comptroller's Department and after completion of their audit, the board should sell the property, applying all proceeds to outstanding debt of the district.
Update 2006- Part of last year's budget side show is floating the idea that a 6th grade academy could be housed at the Columbus Avenue School. In 2005 they dismissed Mr. Panetta's suggestion that to address space problems at Virginia Road, the district should move BOCES classes to Columbus Avenue. That would violate mandates on "least restrictive environments". One year later there are BOCES classes in Columbus Avenue in addition to Easter Seals.
In 1998 they told us that CAS did not even meet minumum NYSED standards for a schoolhouse. They told us we had to close it and build a new $16 million building, twice the size of CAS. Expect that this ruse will come up every year to divert attention from the real issue. The building is costing the taxpayer in excess of $300,000 a year in hard money and millions more in opportunity costs. We can't afford to fix it, they are floating the idea of a third bond and in 2007 we are already paying $23,500 per student.
How many fundraisers will it take to build the Community's largest fully accessible playground? Based on the fact that after holding the same fundrasier last year, Easter Seals managed to install only two swings on the old rusted frame and that, only with constant pressure from this website, perhaps more fundraisers than the current 10 year lease will allow. Information posted on our blog indicates that they have collected $40,000 from these golf outings but need at least $120,000. Project Adventure only cost $80,000! Join the Discussion
Does this announcement below sound familiar? It should, same Billy Martin Golf Classic, same project, same smoke same mirrors. I guess any organization that can hood wink an entire building and grounds from the taxpayers of Valhalla for $1, has no trouble running duplicate fund raisers, year after year. Why not email Hayrim Byun at Easter Seals and ask what happen to last year's fundrasier money and when will they install the new playground? Billy Martin Golf Classic to Benefit Easter Seals
Date : September 15, 2006
Category : Charity
Description :
Hudson Valley Tees Up to Support Children with Disabilities. The Billy Martin Golf Classic is September 15th at Hudson Hills Golf Club in Ossining. Proceeds will help Easter Seals build the community's largest fully accessible playground at their Child Development Center in Valhalla.
Contact Information : Hayrim Byun, Director of Events Planning, Easter Seals New York; or Jay Patrick, Director of Marketing, Easter Seals New York, 212-244-6320
Email : hbyun@eastersealsny.org
