The board of the Islamic School Amsterdam (ISA) foundation is given a last chance to avert bankruptcy. Last month, the Public Prosecution Service submitted a request to the court in Amsterdam to suspend and dismiss the administrators of the ailing Islamic As-Siddieq schools with immediate effect, but the court still wants to give the board some time. If the directors have not yet averted the risk of bankruptcy by June 1, they will still be suspended.
The foundation includes three Amsterdam schools with a total of 1,100 students and two hundred employees. In 2022, the Education Inspectorate discovered that the board — a director and five board members — had made almost 300,000 euros in unlawful expenditure. Dennis Wiersma, then Minister of Education (VVD), wanted to send the administrators away, but they stayed put. His successor Mariëlle Paul (VVD) then decided to impose strict financial measures on the foundation.
As long as the foundation does not replace its board, it will receive only a fraction of the usual government subsidies: only 20 percent since March. As a result, the schools now live off their own funds and are heading towards bankruptcy at great speed. Only a new board can prevent this, the Public Prosecution Service argued, so the court had to intervene.
The court agreed with the Public Prosecution Service's reasoning on Thursday, but decided to give the incumbent directors a last chance. The school foundation is in discussions with two candidate directors and expects to have appointed a new director next month. If this is successful, the schools will be retroactively entitled to the full subsidy amount from April — and the greatest danger will therefore have passed. If this is not possible, the current board members will still be suspended as of June 1.
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