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Ivy Ridge sues state education
department March 31, 2007
By Chris Garifo
 ALBANY
-- The Academy at Ivy Ridge in Ogdensburg has filed a lawsuit
against the state Education Department and its commissioner, Richard
P. Mills, over that agency's rejection of the school's application
to become a private secondary institution.
The legal action, filed Thursday in
state Supreme Court here, is what is known as an Article 78
proceeding.
Ivy Ridge is asking that the
Education Department be required to review its application again and
that it consider information the school alleges was ignored,
especially concerning its academic curriculum. The school then asks,
whatever recommendation is reached, that the application be
forwarded to the state Board of Regents for its consideration.
Ivy Ridge is accusing Mr. Mills and
his department of being arbitrary and capricious in deciding to
reject the school's application, and of treating the application
differently from previous licensing requests. Ivy Ridge says that
the department used a "moving target" in regard to the standards to
which the school was being held, and that department staff members
exceeded their authority by not allowing Regents even to consider
the application.
Jason G. Finlinson, Ivy Ridge owner
and director, declined comment and referred all questions to the New
York City attorney handling the case, Matthew J. Delforte of Shebitz,
Berman & Cohen.
The Education Department left Mr.
Finlinson and Ivy Ridge no choice after rejecting the application,
Mr. Delforte said.
"Procedurally, there's not another
mechanism once the state says there's a final decision," he said.
Education Department spokesman
Jonathan Burman said the department does not comment on pending
litigation.
Ivy Ridge, on Route 37 just west of
Ogdensburg in St. Lawrence County, applied to be licensed as a
private secondary school in August 2005. The school opened in early
2002 on the grounds of the former Mater Dei College.
Ivy Ridge advertises itself as a
boarding school for troubled teens but, in rejecting the
application, the Education Department said it was "principally a
behavior modification center."
In August 2005, Ivy Ridge agreed to
pay more than $1.5 million in restitution and fees after the state
attorney general's office determined that the school fraudulently
was claiming to be accredited and was issuing bogus high school
diplomas.
The same month, Ivy Ridge began the
process to become licensed as a private secondary school, applying
to the state Education Department.
Last November, the department
rejected the application, citing academic program deficiencies and
health and safety concerns for Ivy Ridge's students. Education
Department officials said no appeals process existed for such cases.
That decision was arbitrary, and
the Education Department abused its discretion in reaching it, Mr.
Delforte said.
"We can live with whatever decision
a governmental agency makes as long as the process is fair and based
on standard procedures and criteria in reviewing the application,"
he said. "It appears this didn't happen here. The state Education
Department treated this school very differently from other
applicants in their review process."
Among the ways Ivy Ridge was
treated differently are what the school considers an unprecedented
second and surprise site visit in August; requests for information
and documentation concerning the school's corporate governance or
agreements between the school and other organizations; and senior
department personnel not normally involved in the application review
process being involved in Ivy Ridge's case.
The school claims it often provided
documentation requested by the Education Department, only to be
asked for other documentation, much of which was simply duplicate
information or had no bearing on the application process.
"When you take a look at the types
of information they were seeking, it went way beyond the scope of
what the registration application calls for, and the purpose of
registration," Mr. Delforte said. "There has to be standards in
place when the government makes a review of an application for some
benefit by the citizenry. Here, there was no standard."
As of late Friday, no judge had
been assigned to the case, which faces an April 27 court date.
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