Shulamith School moves forward

With an eye toward its future, the Shulamith School, a first- to eighth-grade yeshiva for girls that will open a high school in September, has agreed to lease the Lawrence School District’s Number Five School for one year for $500,000, with a renewable option for a second year.
Shulamith officials sent out an email to school families after the agreement was announced at the May 5 Lawrence Board of Education budget hearing. “The significant upgrade to our facilities,” it read, “includes spacious classrooms with abundant natural lighting, high ceilings, comfortable office space, a gym, outdoor playground and [basketball] courts, parking and a 400-plus seat auditorium.
“The long-awaited physical consolidation of the lower and middle divisions will enable increased coordination and sharing of resources between our elementary and middle schools,” the email continued. “The new campus will give us the opportunity to substantially upgrade our security, as we will not be sharing facilities with other institutions.”
Shulamith has split its school between Temple Beth El, in Cedarhurst, where its executive office is located, and Sons of Israel, in Woodmere. Shulamith purchased the Forest Labs property in Inwood over a year ago. School officials said in the email that they would evaluate their options in the “coming weeks and months.”
Shulamith officials did not respond to several requests for interviews.

The lease agreement is a boon for the Lawrence district, which closed the Number Five School as part of a restructuring plan that will take effect in September. In addition to the revenue generated by the lease, Lawrence officials said that the district would save approximately $800,000 in operating expenses, because Shulamith will be responsible for all building maintenance.
“We have a short-term tenant while we assess the long-term strategy of the former Number Five School,” Lawrence school board President Murray Forman said. “We spoke with a handful of institutions about a lease; Shulamith offered the highest rent and most favorable option for the district.”
Instead of sending students to the nearest district elementary school, Lawrence will group them by grade levels. Third- and fourth-graders from the Number Two and Number Five schools will be moved to the middle school, where a lower school — third through fifth grades — and an upper school — sixth through eighth grades — will be created. The Number Two School will retain first- and second-graders. Pre-K children and kindergartners will continue to attend the Number Four School.
The district used Plainview-based Greiner-Maltz to market the school building, which is on Cedarhurst Avenue. Forman said that a handful of organizations, ranging from schools to community organizations, bid on the property, and district officials had several exploratory talks with special-needs service providers.
Originally, the district said it was looking to lease the building to an organization or institution that caters to special-needs children. Superintendent Gary Schall said that the special-needs service providers district officials have spoken to need more time to put together their bids. Lawrence will not be moving its estimated 105 special-needs students to the Number Five School, an option officials considered when the leasing plan was announced last year.
“It is important to note that in less than seven months, the district has announced its plan to restructure and put into place a short-term lease arrangement that generates significant revenue and savings,” Schall said, “but, more importantly, provides us with resources required to maintain outstanding programs for our children.”

Have an opinion about leasing the No. Five School to the yeshiva? Send your letter to the editor to jbessen@liherald.com.