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economist suntribune education tuesday march 14 2000 is i j j i class is out after private school fiasco owners used tuition fees to fight court injunction revoking lease by patrick casey staff writer a york region private school has closed its doors on 86 stu dents forcing parents to scramble during the march break to find new arrangements for their children the lifetime learning school an independent school that has taught children from preschool to grade 8 at the richmond hill country club since 1992 officially went out of business friday according to thomhill parent neil rubin students and teachers cleared out their belongings when school recessed friday afternoon rubins daughter attended the school for two years and was in grade 7 her younger sister would have started there in september we didnt learn until february that there were financial problems with the school people have been committing tens of thousands of dollars to the school located on bathurst street just north of hwy 7 lifetime learning inc owners lynn and kenneth howarth and john kozak have spent the past 212 years and a 41day trial fight ing the termination of their lease the school has been operating under a court injunction since its occupancy lease was revoked on sept 18 1997 on jan 31 superior court judge gd lane ruled lifetime learning no longer had the right to operate its school at the club in part because the land was not zoned for such use in a written decision on feb 25 lane allowed the school to remain at the location until july 31 if school officials forfeit the 90000 they put up for an injunction against the club no proof written tests work teachers college says from page 1 teachers is studying the issue but exploring only mentoring and performance appraisals as possible methods of testing officials said they havent found proof written tests are suc cessful oak ridges mpp frank klees noted the province wants the college to develop the test he also said provincial officials have not determined what form the testing is to take and said mentoring and perfor mance appraisals could become part of the testing procedure there may well be reviews that would take place but there isnt anything today that meets the standards that were proposing he said what doesnt exist is a provincewide standard i think the objective is to ensure that whatever testing does take place is done right across the province klees suggested the unions reaction may be related to the provinces plan to tighten the definition of instructional time and force teachers to carry out extracurricular activities harrison admitted teachers are a little discouraged by these promises but denied thafs the reason behind the opposition to testing and to remain at the club another year lifetime learning would have to pay a further 150000 toward the clubs legal fees but lynn howarth said she hedged the schools operating budget against the lawsuit and there is little money available for the balance of the school year its been a long litigation and we lost we went through the courts trying to handle this thing with the funds of the school i mortgaged my house over this howarth said any monies we have received yes it is gone im not going to deny it we just run the school and i dont have anyone else to pay the court costs the court case is for the school it is not a per sonal issue i was fighting for the children i hoped to be able to save it but it just didnt work i feel sick about it i dont have a way to solve this right now and im letting my lawyers deal with it she added parents asked to kick in more cash last wednesday howarth approached the parents requesting they each pledge 3500 in a supplemental tuition fee for their first child and another 1500 for the second stu dent the funds would be used to cover the cost of educating their children until june 25 even though the school had cashed the final instalment of the students 8700 annual tuition a week earlier the fee schedule stated no refunds would be available to parents who did not participate in the program and at least 85 per cent of the families had to agree to the fees for the school to continue operations credits for the fees would be allowed over the next two years if lifetime learning reopened at a new location it came to a point where we had to go to the parents for money i gave them a plan to get it back said howarth whose school first opened in markham before moving in 1989 to yonge street in richmond hill but rubin said as many as 20 families already paid tuition for next year we are talking about people who have had documents in their possession about the judgment and still continued to solicit money to support the school said rubin adding par ents were never told tuition fees were being used to cover the court case and few details were provided about the lengthy lit igation rubin obtained a 16000 refund for next years school dues after his wife sat at the school and demanded the money before she would leave i dont want anybody else to lose money on this he said richmond hill country club lawyer benjamin salsberg said club owner philip macarz has offered free space at the club for the students if parents can arrange to hire teachers mr macarz feels badly because he doesnt want to see the kids out of the school in the middle of the year and lose their year but the school has an absolute right to stay there until july 31 and all she has to do is pay about 10000 in rent each month salsberg said she can choose to close her school and put the children out on the street but it is nothing mr macarz has done dave ross a media relations coordinator with the ministry of education said the only requirement of a private school is to register with the ministry after that they are on their own they are out of our jurisdiction and separate from the public school system ross said they register when they open but are responsible for their own curriculum he said the lifetime learning students can always 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