2 SEPTEMBER 14, 2017 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Christ the King appeals decision in lawsuit over MVP charter school
The court ruled against Middle Village Preparatory Charter School being on the Christ the King High School campus.
BY ANTHONY GIUDICE
AGIUDICE@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@A_GIUDICEREPORT
Christ the King High School’s
(CTK) board of directors is
formally appealing a Queens
Supreme Court judge’s ruling against
them in its lawsuit with the Diocese of
Brooklyn and Queens over the fate of
Middle Village Preparatory Charter
School (MVP), which operates on the
high school’s campus.
The case involves a 40-year-old
agreement between the diocese and
CTK, stating that CTK could form a
board of trustees that would manage
the school independently from the
diocese as the school was on the verge
of closing down in the mid-1970s.
In this agreement, however, it was
established that CTK could not use
the land for anything other than
a Catholic high school without the
diocese’s permission. The diocese
contends that when the CTK board
of trustees opened MVP on the CTK
campus in 2013, they were in breach
of the original contract. CTK had
contended the reverter clause had
expired a decade ago and it had the
ability to use the campus for its own
purposes without seeing the diocese’s
blessing.
What happens to MVP and its students
in the years to come remains
unclear. However, a letter sent from
MVP’s board chair Josephine Lume to
parents and students on Sept. 11 noted
that all classes and extracurricular
activities will continue as scheduled
until further notice.
“MVP had sought permission to ‘intervene’
in the case aft er the judge ruled
in March that CTK was not permitted to
lease any of its space to a charter school,”
the letter explained. “Our lawyers
are reviewing the decision and have
advised us that, in their opinion, we
have suffi cient grounds not only for a
stay but also for an eventual reversal of
Justice Marguerite A. Gray’s decision.”
The diocese sent over court documents
to QNS late Monday aft ernoon,
noting that the judge in their case
against CTK ruled in favor of the
diocese on all counts.
In the court documents it noted that
the diocese had previously been open
to Catholic high schools opening charter
schools on their campuses, with a
specifi c caveat.
“In 2010, another high school in
the diocese requested permission to
rent part of its facilities to a charter
school,” the documents noted, “and
the diocese consented provided the
high school agreed to pay 40 percent
of the rent to a trust for the preservation
of Catholic education in order to
off set a negative impact on Catholic
elementary schools which, unlike
charter schools, charge tuition.”
CTK also fi led for a stay motion —
which would suspend the case — but
was denied by the court, noting that
“CTK was not ordered to convey or deliver
any real property to the diocese,
and whatever the practical eff ect of
this court’s judgment on MVP, the
charter school is not the ‘appellant
or moving party.’”
Although the court ruled in favor of
the diocese, the court is aware of the
problems that would come with the sudden
closure of MVP and sending more
than 400 middle school students into
the already overcrowded District 24.
“However, there is no need for an
abrupt closure of MVP because the
charter school and CTK have been
on notice since on or about March 9,
2017, that this court ruled that ‘Christ
the King Regional High School is permanently
enjoined from continuing
the use of part of its premises for a
charter school without the permission
of the diocese beginning from
the end of the current academic year,’”
the documents said. “This gave MVP
approximately six months to fi nd alternative
facilities, even temporary
alternative facilities. Instead, MVP
allegedly continued to solicit new
students for the 2017-2018 academic
year and only sought a stay aft er the
diocese objected to the solicitation.”
Serphin Maltese, vice chair of
MVP’s board of trustees and chair of
CTK’s board of trustees, is concerned
about the aff ect closing MVP would
have, not only on the MVP students,
parents and staff , but on all the students
on the CTK campus.
“The fact is any disruption to MVP
will have consequences far beyond
MVP itself. MVP has become, over
Photo by Anthony Giudice/Ridgewood Times
the last 4 plus years, an integral
presence on the CTK Campus,” Maltese
said in a statement. “Rent from
MVP helps fund scholarships and
grants for most of the 700 students at
CTK. These funds add up to hundreds
of thousands of dollars that directly
benefi t CTK students and their families
by keeping the high school tuition
aff ordable for so many hard working
people in this area of Queens. In other
words, these funds are subsidizing a
quality Catholic education. Justice
Grays’ decision puts these scholarships
and grants in danger of being
defunded.”
Maltese also highlighted the “confusion
and dislocation” that would
result in MVP being forced to fi nd
adequate alternative educational facilities
in the middle of a school year.
He, however, expressed confi dence
that CTK would fi nd success in its
latest appeal.
Although the judge has made her
decision, the diocese still wants to
work with CTK to keep things running
as they are on the high school’s
campus.
“The Diocese of Brooklyn remains
open to working this out,” said Carolyn
Erstad, spokesperson for the Diocese
of Brooklyn. “We want to reach
a settlement that makes everyone
happy. We hope that Christ the King
will abide by the same terms as every
other regional high school in the diocese
— terms that allow subleasing to
charter schools.”
