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Parents pay teachers’ salaries to keep secular studies going at Orthodox grammar school Pardes House
June 9, 2016 14:03
An independent strictly Orthodox grammar school in London closed its secular studies department this week because it could not pay teachers.
Parents of boys at Pardes House Grammar School in Finchley were told yesterday that lessons in secular subjects were being cancelled from lunchtime “with immediate effect” until staff salaries were paid.
But deputy head David Vincent told the JC today that as a result of the action a number of parents had paid outstanding fees and lessons would resume after Shavuot next week.
Mr Vincent said: “It’s a problem for any independent school if parents don’t pay their fees on time”.
Parents had been told in a message from the principal Rabbi Y Y Lev that some staff had not been paid since the beginning of April and £35,000 was owed to them overall.
Pardes House, he wrote, was “regretfully unable to continue asking staff to come in and teach when they have to continually miss rent and mortgage payments and have no financial security as to when they will be paid.”
The school has 135 boys on its roll from 10 to 16.