THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT / THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
Office of Facilities Planning, 89 Washington Avenue, Room 1060 Education Building Annex, Albany, NY 12234
Tel. (518) 474-3906
Fax (518) 486-5918
Website: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/facplan/

March 14, 2016
Mr. Christopher P. St. Lawrence
Supervisor, Town of Ramapo
237 Rte. 59
Suffern, NY 10901
Re: Non-public school fire inspections performed by Town of Ramapo.
Dear Mr. Lawrence,
During the course of department monitoring of the Rockland Institute for Special Education
(RISE), staff became concerned about the condition of the facility and requested that a
Certified Code Enforcement Official and a Licensed Architect from my office inspect the
facility immediately. That inspection occurred on 01/27/2016 and the violations were so
severe that the department required immediate action by administrators to avoid the closing
of the facility.
Examples of the obvious violations were; numerous exit doors that were inoperable, and
actually labelled as broken with signage, deadbolts in numerous locations, electrical panels
with no covers, exposed wiring, extension cords used on the floor of a bathroom, missing
electrical device covers, and missing exit signs.
I write to you today because it is obvious that these violations have existed for a significant
period of time, including well before the latest inspection dated 01/14/2016, performed by
your employee, Mr. Adam Peltz.
It is difficult to comprehend how these violations were missed: as noted, the exit doors were
actually labelled broken, yet the inspection form certified by Mr. Peltz indicates no violations
at all.
Based on our inspection of RISE, and our concerns over the quality of the inspection
performed by the Town, staff inspected three additional schools in Rockland County that
were recently inspected by Mr. Peltz.
Bais Yaakov
Green Meadow Waldorf
Bais Yehuda
In all three cases, serious violations were discovered despite recent clean inspections
performed by your employee.

 In fact, of 19 recent non-public school inspections performed by Mr. Peltz, not a single
violation was discovered. This is extremely unlikely. Coupled with the results of our
inspection on four facilities and our discovery of significant code violations at each location,
it is our opinion that Mr. Peltz is either not qualified to make these inspections or simply not
actually performing the inspections, despite the fact that he has certified that each report
represents an “accurate description of the building and conditions [he] observed.”
Upon inquiry to the Department of State as the agency providing Mr. Peltz’s certification as
code enforcement official, this appears to be an employer/employee issue that falls under
your authority.
For you information, I spoke to Mr. Peltz personally on 3/3/16 and brought my concerns to
his attention. In response to my description of broken exit doors, he indicated that he
would not cite those as violations if they were not doors required by code. That statement
indicates a dangerous lack of understanding of code enforcement.
First, it is unlikely that Mr. Peltz took the time during his inspection to conduct a detailed
code analysis to determine if those doors were required by code, and second, during an
emergency condition such as a fire, blackout, or intruder, an individual should never
encounter a blocked egress path of any kind. Broken Exit doors are blocked egress paths
whether they are required by code or not. If they exist, they must be in service and fully
operational. This is even more critical for a facility that has severely handicapped students
that need assistance.
You should also be aware that Mr. Peltz stated that he has not received any training on
how to perform these inspections. Please bear in mind that Mr. Peltz was required to
undertake approximately 120 hours of code training by the Department of State for initial
certification and an additional 24 hours of training per year to maintain his certification.
Please be advised that the safety of school students and staff is of the utmost importance
to the Department. We bring this to your attention in order that you may be aware of our
concerns and remedy this situation before a tragedy occurs. Additionally, we will be
advising the schools in your area to seek alternate assistance in completing their annual
inspections. It is imperative that fire inspections be performed in compliance with all
applicable laws and regulations in order to ensure the safety of students and staff.

Sincerely,

Carl T. Thurnau, PE
Coordinator

Cc:
2

 Mr. Brian Tollison PE, CEO
Assistant Director for Oversight
Division of Building Standards and Codes
NYS Department of State
One Commerce Plaza
99 Washington Ave
Albany, NY 12231-0001
Mr. John Addario PE
Assistant Director of Educational Services
Division of Building Standards and Codes
NYS Department of State
One Commerce Plaza
99 Washington Ave
Albany, NY 12231-0001

3