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Special-Needs School Looks for a Home in North Tonawanda

Posted on: Tuesday, 6 December 2005, 09:00 CST

By Angelica Morrison

NORTH TONAWANDA -- Voters in the North Tonawanda School District will decide Tuesday whether the city will be the first community in the nation to host a college preparatory school for students with special needs.

They will do so amid concerns that the school could pose safety issues and as the leader of the proposed project fights a sexual harassment complaint on Long Island.

Gersh Management Services, a private educational company that runs a Montessori elementary school and a high school academy in Huntington, has offered the district $700,000 for the former Lowry Middle School, which closed in June 2004.

The company proposes to open a college preparatory school for high school graduates with neurobiological disorders, such as autism, dyslexia and Tourette's syndrome.

In a 4-3 vote in October, School Board members decided to put the proposal to a referendum, choosing the Gersh pitch over two other proposals that involved converting the 78-year-old school building at 621 Payne Ave. into a senior citizen housing complex.

"Here's an opportunity for North Tonawanda to be a first," School Board member David P. Rechin said.

School Board President Scott Schultz said Gersh Academy could be a huge stepping stone for its students and the city. The academy is partnering with Daemen College in Snyder to provide its two-year graduates the opportunity for transfer into a four-year degree program.

>Complaint against Gersh

Should voters approve, Kevin Gersh, executive director of Gersh Management, will be fighting a sexual harassment allegation while he pushes toward opening his new academy.

In September, former Gersh employee Paulina DeMarco filed a discrimination complaint against Kevin Gersh with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

She accused Gersh of sexual harassment and gender and pregnancy discrimination.

DeMarco started work last April as Gersh's personal assistant at the West Hills Montessori School and quit about three months later, said her lawyer, Douglas H. Wigdor, of Thompson Wigdor and Gilly.

DeMarco has accused Gersh of making sexual advances toward her, rubbing her neck and putting a pack of Viagra in her desk drawer, Wigdor said.

Gersh also e-mailed DeMarco photographs of naked women and bragged to her that he hosted a "Girls Gone Wild" semi-pornographic video shoot on his boat, Wigdor alleged.

Wigdor also said DeMarco was discriminated against because of her pregnancy.

"My client disclosed that she was pregnant and she was then told that it would be better for her to go part time," Wigdor said.

Gersh called the harassment complaint "hurtful." He denied the accusations but said aspects of the Viagra incident were true.

"She was my personal assistant, and I asked her to ship a pack of Viagra to a friend in London . . .," Gersh said during a telephone interview with The Buffalo News last week. "I wish I had a boat that 'Girls Gone Wild' would even consider," he added, jokingly.

Gersh said that throughout DeMarco's employment she consistently showed up late or called in sick.

"She was disgruntled. She didn't fit into our system," he said. "She worked here for 3 1/2 months, she got pregnant, and in the first three months she was out 20-some odd days and called in sick. She was late three out of five days [a week]. We adjusted her schedule. We really tried to make all the accommodations for her."

Wigdor said DeMarco complained to the director of human resources about the harassment, "which fell on deaf ears because she is Gersh's niece."

Gersh confirmed that the human resources director is his niece, adding, "I'd tell you she's a stickler for everything. She takes her job very seriously. She would write me up in a heartbeat."

Wigdor said his client is waiting for the EEOC to finish its investigation and then may take legal action in federal court.

>Plea to voters

When residents vote on Tuesday, Gersh and others said they hope voters will look past the allegations.

"What I do is for the well-being of the children," Gersh said.

Schultz, the North Tonawanda School Board president, said he thinks the lawsuit would not negatively affect the area in the "slightest" if the college were to join the community.

"High-profile people get all sorts of lawsuits against them all the time," Schultz said. "In my mind, everyone's innocent until proven guilty."

"There's only been one person in the community who has addressed concerns about it," Schultz said of the sale proposal. "I've heard more positive than negative, and I think it's one of the first really good, good things that happened here in a long time."

Rechin said he is not sure how the harassment complaint will affect the referendum.

"I don't know," he said. "[City residents] voted for Clinton twice. Again, it's just an allegation right now. . . . In fact, if it was true I think it would be unfortunate to tie it into Gersh Academy. Gersh is more than Kevin Gersh. It's made up of the students that go to Gersh Academy. That's really Gersh Academy."

Gersh Management Services, based in Huntington, operates two schools for students with special needs in the Long Island community: West Hills Montessori School, for younger pupils, and Gersh Academy, a high school.

Gersh plans to create a college in North Tonawanda.

Rick Belyea, a representative for Gersh Academy, said administrators anticipate an initial enrollment of 40 to 50 students, and the college will work with Daemen College. Professors from Daemen will teach courses at the academy, and eventually the students will be integrated into classes at Daemen, Belyea said.

Board members have heard concerns from residents about the types of students who will attend the college.

"When we were at the board meetings, a number of people had the perceptions that the kids would be below average in performance and have the negative traits that are associated with some of the disorders," Rechin said.

Belyea said the students will not be a danger to residents. He said about 80 percent to 95 percent of the children the academy programs currently serve are students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Tourette's syndrome or autism.

>Residents' concerns

"It's heartbreaking when you're hearing the rumors that are out there, and they trickle down and it gets to the kids," he said. "The kids hear them, and they know that it's not true. A special-needs kid is not the same as an institutionally needy kid."

Like traditional colleges, the academy would offer a range of courses, including liberal arts and communications.

Students selected to attend would be put through an extensive screening process, Belyea said. He said the process would include screening by a doctor, who examines the student's history for violent behavior or disciplinary problems.

Also, students would undergo an interview with Kevin Gersh.

"There will not be any exceptions," Belyea said.

Property taxes also were considered as the School Board moved toward the referendum.

Because it would be a private school, the academy would be added the tax rolls and could boost the city economy in other ways, said supporters of the proposal.

"We are buying houses," Belyea said. "The people who are running the school are going to live up there."

The referendum runs from noon to 9 p.m. Tuesday in the Student Alumni Center in the Meadow Drive Complex, 405 Meadow Drive.

e-mail: niagaranews@buffnews.com

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School vote

The issue: The North Tonawanda School Board will ask school district voters to decide whether to sell the former Lowry MIddle School to a Huntington-based company that would convert it into Gersh Academy, a college preparatory school for high school graduates with neurobiological disorders, such as autism, dyslexia and Tourette's syndrome.

The vote: Noon to 9 p.m. Tuesday in the Student Alumni Center, Meadow Drive Complex, 405 Meadow Drive.

The school: Built in 1927, the three-story, 113,000-square-foot building sits on 40 acres.

Student capacity: 1,100

Sale price: $700,000

Tax implications: Gersh Academy is a for-profit organization that has agreed to pay all taxes on the property and start new construction immediately.

Source: Buffalo News

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