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Overcast Shulamith School to lease the Number Five School
District to collect $500,000 in rent; lessee pays all building expenses
Last night at the Lawrence School District budget hearing, the Board of Education voted to approve a one-year agreement for $500,000 with a year option to lease the Number Five School in Cedarhurst to the Shulamith School for Girls.
“We have a short-term tenant while we assess the long-term strategy of the former Number Five School,” said Board President Murray Forman. “We spoke with a handful of institutions about a lease; Shulamith offered the highest rent and most favorable option for the district.”
In addition to the amount of the lease, Lawrence officials said that approximately $800,000 in operating expenses will be saved as Shulamith is responsible for all building maintenance.
The district used Plainview-based Greiner-Maltz to market the school building on Cedarhurst Avenue. Forman said that a handful of organizations that ranged from schools to community organizations bid on the property, and district officials had several exploratory talks with special-needs providers.
Originally, the district said it was looking to lease to an organization or institution that caters to the special-needs children. Superintendent Gary Schall said that the special-needs providers they 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 as they initially considered when the leasing plan was announced last year.
Beginning in September, Shulamith’s first- through eighth-grade will move into the Number Five School from their locations at Congregation Beth El and Sons of Israel. The school's new high school, which will open this September, will also be housed in the Cedarhurst Avenue building.
School officials said in an email “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 new campus will give us the opportunity to substantially upgrade our security, as we will not be sharing facilities with other institutions.”
