Fiasco at Milliken

The Cleveland Heights-University Heights school board has rejected an offer from Mosdos Ohr Hatorah for the purchase of the Severance-Milliken school. The building has not been used in many years. This is the same board that put its hands out for a tax levy last year. The annual cost per student in CH-UH is about $3,600. Is the maintenance of this decaying building factored into of that cost? The district sits in the Continuous Improvement ranking. That means improvement is NEEDED, not OBSERVED. Gee, those Heightsters sure get a lot of bang for their buck!

This is an example of the kind of penny wise/pound foolish kind of thinking that sent the once great CH-UH schools down the rat hole. The Milliken school has been sitting unused for six years. No one has made a realistic offer to purchase the building at its peak value of over $2 million. No one has offered to lease the building at a rent that would allow Heights schools to recoup their costs for remediation. No one will. The best option for Heights schools is to cut their losses and sell the property with the stipulation that the property is being sold “as-is” and Mosdos Ohr Hatorah will be responsible for removal of asbestos and any other remediation.

This is also an example of the latent anti-Semitism that exists between differing Jewish sects. Many Reformed and Conservative Jews are embarrassed by Orthodox Jews who adopt a certain manner of dress and observe the Sabbath. Meanwhile, Orthodox Jews do not consider Conservative and Reform Jews to be “real” Jews in the same way that some Catholics do not consider Protestants to be “real” Christians. And let’s not even talk about secular Jews and secular Christians!