CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — At least for now, the protracted negotiations have gone public between the CH-UH Board of Education and an Orthodox Jewish school that still wants to buy the old Millikin Elementary School.
Cleveland Heights-University Heights School Board President Ron Register says he and his colleagues are “mystified” by an “Open Letter” circulated last month by attorney Alan Rapoport, who represents Mosdos Ohr Hatorah school.
CH Resident says
Something just doesn’t feel right about this whole deal.
I suspect both sides are guilty of arrogance.
When will our elected officials realize that they work for us and not the opposite?
When will Mosdos realize that they’re like the boy who cried Wolf too many times?
Milikin Follower says
Really you might want to consider the facts.
Twice the BOE accuses MOH of the same thing: Not returning calls. If you recall, at the time, Jason Stein, Councilman, CH dispelled that theory by reciting in public a list of all the communications they’d had back and forth.
Again they tried it. But consider the BOE”s timing:
They had a massive levy coming up, and they need the trust of the people to pass it because it is so huge. But the public does not trust them with doing a good job with the disposition of vacant buildings because they left Milkin vacant for so long it deteriorated terribly and the Coventry closing was painful. Yet their facilities plan calls for – wait for it – closing 3 more elementary schools.
At the time of the November elections, the public was under the impression that the BOE was close to selling the building to MOH.
MOH offers an opening bid. They counter, MOH counters and then the BOE says, “NO, we want more money than your appraisal says it’s worth, but we want to give you less land.”
So the MOH decision makers decided that they just aren’t that foolish. It’s not like anyone else wants it because only our community sees value in it for our community.
But then the BOE goes to press with, “Gee, we tried, but MOH offered such a pittance that we really couldn’t justify giving away public lands like that” implying that we were cheap, below fair market, and unprofessional by holding up the lowest number offered instead of the valid one, and again bringing out the old, “and they don’t return phone calls.”
After all, the bond issue was over and passed, so now it didn’t matter, except they still had to make their refusal look wise and justified.
So they went to press. Low offer, Obvious why it had to be turned down, besides, look at all those unreturned phone calls.
Except it was Yom Tov and they knew it,. And the offer they mention was the opening, not the final one and they knew that too. More, that offer agrees with the MOH appraisal, and they know that, too.
So when MOH tries to set the record straight, presumably to let the public know that they are still the best option for the property and still interested, I don’t think they are crying wolf, but hoping that the truth out there will bring public opinion to let the BOE know that continuing to leak public funds to maintain it while saying no to a good deal isn’t what they want.
It may not work, but the board has admitted they have no better plan and they do have other levies coming up. So it might. It’s all up to the One Above, but if they don’t try, then we know what the answer is.