Angered by School Switch, Buyout King Retaliates

WELLESLEY FALLS, Mass.  Newcomers to this upscale suburb of Boston, Don and Sherry Fagles thought their five year-old, Brett, was set when they bought a house in the affluent Fulton school district.  “We were comforted by the fact that he’d be playing with some of the wealthiest children in America,” says Sherry, a former commercial real estate broker.  “Then our dreams came crashing down around us.”


In happier times.

The cause of Sherry’s dismay is a redistricting plan that shifted them from Fulton Elementary School to the less-desirable Gates district, where the median home price is $800,000, less than half the $2.8 million the Fagles paid for theirs.


Home Sweet de-valued Home

“I’m not the kind of guy who sues somebody at the drop of a hat,” says Don, principal in a leveraged buy-out firm in Boston.  “But if I’d been wearing a hat when Sherry called me with the news, I would’ve sued somebody.”

home
The Horror:  $750,000 starter home.

Instead, Don and Sherry and other couples who were redistricted out of Fulton and into Gates due to a population shift and space constraints sat down and analyzed their predicament as a business proposition.  “When we put our heads together and looked at the situation objectively,” Don says, “we were able to come up with a rational business plan that’s a win-win for everyone involved.”


“Are you gonna take our slide, mister?”

The plan?  A $20 million leveraged buy-out of Fulton Elementary School, lock, stock, barrel, modeling clay and principal.  “It’s really a unique solution,” says Eric Tines of the Boston Merchant, a regional business publication.  “Most people would just say ‘Screw it–let’s send little Evan or Emily to private school’, but not these folks.”

The hostile takeover is being funded by high-yield bonds in minimum denominations of $100,000, secured by future earnings of the pre-schoolers who have yet to pronounce their first “See Spot run!”  “Grandparents are our most active buyers,” says Scott Wherling of Bache Securities.  “They’re looking for good returns, gilt-edged security and a picture of their little darling on the face of the instrument.”


“Grammy and Gramps–Thank you for buying my Baaa+ Rated Kindergarden Buy-Out Bond.”

Gates School principal Allan Watkins, a career educator who makes around $87,000 a year not including benefits, says he’s giving the buyout offer serious consideration.  “I’d be remiss if I didn’t weigh the pros and cons of a proposal that will have a profound affect on the lives of so many young children,” he says, his brow furrowed with the apparent gravity of the decision he faces.  “That plus I’d get a BMW, which makes me wet my pants just thinking about it.”

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