How SvPO brought public real estate into private hands

Tekst Arno Kersten - Redactie Onderwijsblad - 1 maart 2022 - 9 Minuten om te lezen

Image: Editors Education Magazine

After a pronounced critical In the report of the Education Inspectorate last year, a new investigation would become public this week, which was officially adopted at the end of January. It is now clear that the SvPO leadership has announced a lawsuit to prevent publication, an inspectorate spokesperson said. the Education Magazine know. Pending the trial, the results of the investigation will remain on the shelf for a while. This is not the first time that the school board has challenged inspection decisions in court.

In short: what are you going to read? Four school buildings that the Schools for Personal Education have renovated or built in recent years with public money are in the legal hands of a private foundation. Like the schools, this foundation is chaired by SvPO founder Misha van Denderen. This foundation for personal education was allowed to take over the renovated school buildings in Hoorn and Deventer after the renovation for the original purchase price. Van Denderen himself sold the building in Deventer through a private foundation and received a premium for 'risk and exploitation'.

SvPO network

First some much needed background. SvPO secondary schools present themselves with small classes and a lot of contact time. But over the past few years, another side has emerged. In 2019 described the Education Magazine foggy financial constructions, including with regard to parental contributions. Former teachers recovered in 2020 about efficiency that has gone too far and outdated teaching materials. Despite the small classes, a lot of money ended up in the bank and in housing. Three of the eight schools have now been declared very weak by the inspectorate, including the Utrecht school for the second time. With the latter there is a sanction affected: since January funding has been withheld by fifteen percent. The SvPO leadership has been fighting the inspection reports through the courts for years.

Eight Schools for Personal Education

2010 Kapelle (inspection opinion: sufficient)
2013 Hurdegaryp (Enough)
2016 Geldermalsen (Enough)
2017 Utrecht (very weak), Amsterdam (very weak)
2019 Hoorn (very weak), Deventer (Enough), Hengelo (Enough)

The eight schools all form their own foundation, chaired by founder Misha van Denderen. In addition to these eight public organizations, there are two private legal entities in the SvPO network, founded and chaired by the same Van Denderen. The foundation for personal education has a so-called ANBI status, with which it is recognized by the tax authorities as a charitable foundation. That 'charity' is facilitating personal education. The main source of income for this foundation is parental contributions, according to its own annual report. Parents are asked to pay 450 euros per year for students' language trips. According to the annual accounts, the sum totaled more than 2019 million euros in 2020 and 1,6.

And then there is the Frederikssoon foundation. That is Van Denderen's own foundation, which is registered at his private address. Last year pale that he has provided mortgage loans to his two sons through this foundation. Van Denderen recently suggested in a brief to the Education Committee in the House of Representatives that no public money was used for this. The House of Representatives will debate SvPO on 24 March.

And good to know: these two private legal entities, in contrast to public organizations, are outside the direct supervision of the Inspectorate.

Four locations

Usually schools in primary and secondary education are given a building in use by the municipality. Due to a so-called decentralization of the housing, SvPO is in a number of cases responsible for arranging a school building.

 

Passage from the deed of transfer with which the foundation for personal education took over land and building in Hoorn at the end of 2020.

In recent years, SvPO has realized new school buildings at four locations with public money: Hurdegaryp, Geldermalsen, Hoorn and Deventer. The private ANBI foundation for personal education became the legal owner of these four buildings and plots, according to various deeds that the Education magazine requested from the Land Registry.

In Hurdegaryp and Geldermalsen, this involves complete new construction. The ANBI foundation had already bought the land there, on which the school building was later erected with the use of education funds.

At the other two locations, existing buildings have been converted into schools. In Hoorn a school has been realized in the former Catholic Mission House and in Deventer the school is located in a former church building. According to the transfer deeds, the foundation for personal education took over the real estate after the renovations, at the end of 2020 and September 2021 respectively.

Public

Image: Editors Education Magazine

Millions in government funding for the schools have been used for the new construction and renovations. The general annual report of the schools states that the schools together have invested 'a lot of money'. It is not possible to deduce from the annual reports how much public funds have been invested in housing. Van Denderen does not want to mention any amounts to the Education magazine.

In addition, money was used from parental contributions. 'The buildings in Hoorn, Deventer, Hurdegaryp and Geldermalsen were realized with parental contributions and with money from all eight schools together,' Van Denderen wrote in a letter to the House of Representatives.

Ground lease

Three of these four public school foundations will have to pay the private ANBI foundation for the next thirty years to be allowed to use the land and the buildings. In July and August 2021, three long-term leases were registered with the Land Registry that run until January 1, 2051. This concerns the schools in Hurdegaryp (13.465 euros per year), Geldermalsen (42.017 euros per year) and Hoorn (87.662 euros per year). years). The compensation is based on 5 percent of the land value. No ground lease has yet been recorded in the Land Registry for housing in Deventer.

What is also striking with some deeds of delivery are the transaction amounts

What is also striking in some deeds of delivery are the transaction amounts. The real estate in Hoorn was initially purchased through project developer De Nijs Particatie Hoorn BV. This happened in 2018 for an amount of 1,7 million euros, and the purchaser was the public Frisian school foundation in Hurdegaryp. The building was thoroughly renovated and on December 24, 2020, the private ANBI foundation for personal education took over the same registered property for the same amount: 1,7 million euros. The description in both deeds is identical: 'the right of ownership with regard to the superstructure (known as "the Mission House") with parking spaces and subsoil, yard, garden and other appurtenances'.

Property

 

Passage from Hurdegaryp's leasehold.

In his statements prior to this publication, Van Denderen always left open who is the legal owner of the four new and refurbished school buildings. In the letter to the House of Representatives, he only talks about beneficial ownership. 'The economic ownership of the buildings belongs to the schools, who pay ground rent', he writes.

The Land Registry deeds state in black and white that the ANBI foundation for personal education is the legal owner. When the Education magazine puts it to him, he responds: "That has little meaning." Because, he says: "The ANBI does not own the buildings and if the leasehold on the land ever expires, it will have to pay for those buildings."

After publication of the article, he emails: "The legal owner (SvPO) cannot do anything with the building because the economic ownership lies with someone else (the school)." The schools would thus be entitled to the use value of the real estate, according to the director.

The ANBI foundation is the legal owner of the buildings. "That has little meaning"

In the annual accounts, the SvPO management writes that it wants to prevent the municipality from being able to claim a building if a school were to close. 'That would be very unreasonable, because the municipality has contributed very little to the building (in Hoorn, for example, about 28.000 euros) while the schools together have invested a lot of money in it.'

It is also striking that the private ANBI foundation for personal education only activated the land plots in Hurdegaryp and Geldermalsen at the end of 2020. And nothing else. According to Van Denderen, this is not necessary, because the ANBI foundation "only owns the land". However, substantial investments in real estate have been capitalized on the balance sheets of the schools in Hurdegaryp (3,8 million), Geldermalsen (2,8 million) and Hoorn (1,1 million).

risk surcharge

Then to Denver. Just like Hoorn, a school that started in 2019. Van Denderen bought the monumental Heilig Hart church building in Deventer through his private foundation Frederikssoon in September 2018 from the Roman Catholic parish of Saint Lebuïnus. Price: 800 thousand euros, plus 48 thousand euros transfer tax. His foundation borrowed six tons from the ANBI foundation for this. While the church was being renovated, the students were temporarily taught in a different location. In the summer of 2020, the school moved into its new accommodation. In April 2021, Van Denderen also bought the adjacent rectory through the Frederikssoon foundation, intended for later expansion. Van Denderen sold both buildings in September 2021 to the ANBI foundation for personal education.

According to the deed of delivery, Van Denderens Frederikssoon foundation charged 962.985 euros, more than a hundred thousand more than the purchase price. A surcharge for 'risk and operating costs'

For the church it was also agreed: takeover for the original purchase amount. According to the deed of transfer, Van Denderens Frederikssoon foundation charged a purchase price of 962.985 euros, more than a hundred thousand euros more than the purchase price including transfer tax. A surcharge for 'risk and operating expenses' for the period October 2018 to March 2021, according to the Svpo annual report 2020.

Van Denderen responds to that surcharge: "That was because the municipality had claimed for years that no suitable school building was available and that the school could therefore not start." By purchasing the church, Svpo was able to prove that a building was available, according to the chairman of the board. "Whether the municipality would agree to it was not yet clear at the time, and neither was it clear whether an environmental permit would be issued. There was therefore the risk of being left with a church that had been empty and unsaleable for years."

 

Numbers in a row, click on the image

Supervisors

Since last autumn, no other directors or supervisors have been registered with the public school foundations other than Van Denderen, according to data from the Chamber of Commerce. The last supervisor, Hank van Dijk, has been unregistered since November last year, fellow supervisor Sita Remesar on 27 September. The only other official still registered is Van Denderen's wife and co-founder Suzan Polet as director. Recently, Van Denderen has taken steps to merge the school foundations. The intention is that Polet will then become a 'supervisory director'.

In addition to Van Denderen, the ANBI foundation for personal education has also registered one director since 2007: Bart Soels. A third director of this private foundation, Erik Terheggen, was deregistered last summer.

Accountability

The Education Magazine for this article consulted, among other things, annual accounts, deeds and other documents from the Land Registry and extracts from the Chamber of Commerce. Misha van Denderen was presented with a draft version on Saturday, including three additional questions. He put a number of passages from that draft text on LinkedIn with his comments on Sunday. On Monday afternoon, Van Denderen sent an additional response.

After publication of the article, Van Denderen still acknowledges that the ANBI foundation for personal education is the legal owner of the buildings.

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