RAMAPO - A state Supreme Court judge has ordered the closure of a Route 306 private school operating without town approvals, but the congregation plans to appeal the order to a higher court.

Congregation Bais Chinuch Ateres Bnos — which has been subject to fire and safety code violations — has been teaching more than 300 students for more than a year at 261 Route 306 without town permits and site plan approval.

The school's two-year temporary certificate of occupancy expired Sept. 30, 2017.

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The congregation had been issued a permit on Sept. 18, 2015, to educate hundreds of girls in what became 10 interconnected modular classroom trailers at a complex ofschools on Route 306 in Monsey. The town has since revoked its law allowing temporary modular classrooms while a congregation constructed a school.

Judge Paul Marx ruled Nov. 19 that Ramapo can shut down the school until the congregation obtains site plan approval from the Planning Board and a certificate of occupancy, among other needed approvals.

Marx found the congregation delayed getting site plan approval and noted the Zoning Board of Appeals has denied the congregation variances for the school.

The congregation "has not raised an issue of fact warranting denial of (Ramapo) plaintiff's motion," Marx ruled. "There's no dispute that (congregation) defendants are using and occupying the premises without a certificate of occupancy."

Marx rejected the congregation's argument that the town had delayed the approval process and that closure would deny the children an education.

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Attorney Terry Rice, representing the congregation, filed a notice of appeal with the Appellate Division challenging Marx's "permanent injunction" preventing the congregation from operating a school until getting a town certificate of occupancy and site plan approval.

The appeal also argues the closure would deny more than 300 children a religious and secular education at the school, according to Rice's appeal notice.

Ari Waldman, a rabbi who runs several schools in Ramapo, has declined comment. He is listed in court papers as president of Congregation Devrie Chaim, which bought the property at 261 Route 306 in February 2016.

Ramapo Supervisor Michael Specht, a former town deputy attorney, said Rice can ask the court to issue a stay to block the closure. He said Rice wants to be heard on the issue before the judge signs the judgment for the closure of the school.

Specht said he hopes the issues can be settled and the congregation seeks site plan approval.

Specht said a Building Department inspection didn't find any violations at the school on Monday. The yeshiva is bunched with legal schools and the town hopes for a consolidation of schools.

"Our goal moving forward is to enforce the judge's order and ensure their facility is safe," Specht said.

The town cannot arbitrarily close down a school without a court order. Judges are usually reluctant to issue closure orders unless there's imminent safety issues.

The town pressed the judge for a closure order in August after inspectors found over-crowding in classrooms and other violations at the school — which was being run as a summer camp.

Inspectors found the trailer units had at least 40 more students than the permitted maximum of 327. Other safety and fire violations were minor and many had been repaired after an earlier inspection.

During the August inspections, Ramapo inspectors found a bevy of violations, including blocked exits, holes in walls, trash, and air-conditioners sitting on crates.

Violations also were found in February, including electrical violations, with areas of exposed wires, walls needing sheet-rocking, cracks in the ceiling and holes in the walls throughout the building, and floors in disrepair, including missing tiles, the legal papers stated.

The congregation cured the violations after the town filed closure papers with the Supreme Court.

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