Back-to-School Backfires for Students at Closing School

A private New Jersey high school is closing days before the start of the school year, leaving teachers jobless and students scrambling for a new school.

The private Jewish day school in Teaneck, New Jersey, the Metropolitan Schechter High School, announced abruptly last week that it does not have enough money to open for class this year.

"People are obviously upset," a rabbi at a nearby school, Yosef Adler, said. "You have 80 kids looking for a school."

Rabbi Adler, who runs an Orthodox yeshiva high school in Teaneck, the Dorah Academy of Bergen County, said he learned about the crisis late last week when a family approached him asking if he could place their children. They had heard the school would not open the night before, he said.

Behind the school's abrupt closure is an ongoing crisis in the sub-prime mortgage field, a newspaper, Jewish Week, reported today. Citing the school's head, Jay Dewey, the newspaper said that the school closed after a longtime donor with major holdings in the field was forced to pull back his support.

Mr. Dewey and other officials at the school did not return several phone calls today.

The Schechter school is part of a network of Conservative Jewish schools around the country. Rabbi Adler said most of the displaced students are transferring to schools in the network, including schools in West Orange, New Jersey, and Westchester, New York, where he said many students have already been placed.

The rabbi said he has offered a place to two students, but they are still waiting to make a final decision on whether to attend.