The following is a complaint filed with the New York State Comptroller regarding the proposed deal between Bethesda Baptist Church and the City School District of New Rochelle
If you share our concerns please email the Comptroller at investigations@osc.ny.gov and ask him to investigate the “New Rochelle Schools Real Estate Deal”.
Dear Comptroller DiNapoli,
I want to report my concerns about my view that efforts were made to involve the City School District of New Rochelle in a corrupt real estate deal. Although this is my opinion, it is an opinion supported by numerous records obtained under FOIL, public board meetings and thus video recordings and interviews both on and off the record.
As the articles linked below explain, there is the appearance that New Rochelle School Superintendent Dr. Laura Feijóo and New Rochelle Board of Education Amy Moselhi conspired with Deacon David Peters of Bethesda Baptist Church to direct a non-competitive deal to put in place a lease agreement worth more than a half-million dollars ($173,000 per annum for 3 years with annual options to renew).
The purpose of this deal appears to be threefold: for the Board President to give her friend money for his church, for her friend, a Church Deacon, to bail out his financially-troubled church, and for the Superintendent to buy off a vocal critic who was leading an effort to get the courts and SED to remove her from office.
The deal fell apart under aggressive questioning by board members who smelled a rat. Moselhi was effectively removed as Board President on July 7, 2020 as a direct result of her handling of “the Bethesda deal”. The board has taken steps to remove Dr. Feijóo who then announced an unexpected “two-week medical leave” on September 3, 2020. It has been a month and she has yet to return to work. Peters aborted a planned run for school board.
Amy Moselhi who became Board President in July 2019, has a close personal relationship with David Peters. She has described him as “my mentor”, “my closest friend”, and “the first person I met when I moved to New Rochelle”.
David Peters led an organization (“the Collective) that initiated legal action to remove Dr. Feijóo from office in August 2019.
One of her first actions as the new Superintendent (her start date was November 1, 2019) was to declare the location of the New Rochelle “Alternative High School” unacceptable. Just two months later she was offering David Peters, her fiercest critic, a lucrative lease agreement to fill space at his church that has been a largely unused “white elephant” since it opened in the mid-1990s by moving the Alternative High School to the Bethesda Family Life Center.
The deal was conceived of by Moselhi and Peters. Moselhi then approached Feijóo on January 21, 2020, making an introduction of Peters to Feijóo.
Once negotiations began, Peters sent a letter to members of the Collective announcing he would no longer be involved in efforts to remove Dr. Feijóo.
Several months later, on June 23, 2020, Feijóo told the school board at a public meeting that she initiated the idea of a deal with Bethesda, a claim flatly contradicted by emails.
Feijóo admitted to the board she did not look at alternative sites. The emails indicate Feijóo made no effort to negotiate on price, actually increasing the price from $149,000 to $173,000 per annum.
On the same day Moselhi introduced Peters to Feijóo, he solicited a “board packet” to run for school board. Emails show Moselhi intervened on behalf of Peters regarding the school board race. She was most likely involved in an effort to prevent the public from learning that Peters was both lead negotiator for the Bethesda deal and actively considering a run for school board which would have put him in a position to influence the Bethesda deal.
I believe there is enough smoke around what has all the hallmarks of a crooked real estate deal to warrant an investigation by the Office of the State Comptroller.
I am available to assist in any way.
Thank you.
Robert Cox
Publisher and Managing Editor
Talk of the Sound
RELATED:
New Rochelle School Officials Mum on Reported Move of Alternative High School
The haphazard and incompetent way the June 2020 Board of Elections ballot count was handled is yet an additional “red flag”. The New Rochelle Board of Education needs to be held accountable. The incompetence continues and even more mind boggling, it is being allowed to continue!!