Parents at the Croft School in the South End are calling on Oxford Street’s Board to honor a contract that would allow them to buy the school’s assets after the school announced it would close at the end of the school year.
The school’s closure comes two months after the the school’s co-founder and executive director, Scott Given, had reportedly misrepresented the school’s finances.
Ming Min Hui, a Croft School parent, said the school offers a “unique combination of high-quality teachers, tremendous amounts of financial aid that enable a really accessible and diverse community, incredibly neighborhood-oriented participation and just a really rigorous and joyful education program.”
“All of that really amounts to something that we all consider incredibly worth saving,” she said.
In March, the school’s board revealed in a letter that Given admitted to falsifying a letter of credit tied to a possible expansion and maintaining two sets of financial records, overstating the school’s revenue while minimizing its expenses.
The falsified finances resulted in a $13 million debt, and a need for $5 million to keep the school running for the rest of the school year.
In April, London-based education group Dukes Education was chosen as the lead bidder for the school’s Boston locations, but the bid fell through.
Parent Marc Sorresso, who has two children at the Croft School, said the announcement of the school’s closure was not a surprise, given how the bidding process was run.
“We have been communicating with them for the past two months to help them understand that bidding a school is different than trying to sell any other type of business that is solely based on a product,” he said. “We’re talking about families and kids who have been — since the announcement was made in March — trying to scramble to figure out what is the future for their children.”
In a May 8 letter to parents, Oxford Street Education LLC, which is doing business as The Croft School, noted “how hard many of you worked to maintain The Croft School as you know it,” but said the “difficult circumstances, uncertain financials and condensed time frame made this a trying environment for purchasers to timely make a binding offer for the schools.”
South End Village Academy, a parent-led nonprofit formed to address the school’s financial crisis, raised more than $1.2 million in donations to pay Oxford Street’s operating expenses — including payroll and rent — through the rest of the school year.
More than $500,000 of that has already been loaned to Oxford Street. In connection with these loans, the academy has a contractual option to purchase the assets of The Croft School in the South End and obtain the school’s South End locations at 1525 Washington St. and 1310 Washington St.
Hui said the group exercised the option to buy the assets when the school closure was announced on May 8.
“Now that the Oxford Street Board has failed to successfully navigate a process … and to fulfill their needs to keep the school operating and surviving in its best form, we are positioned to take the school forward under this new nonprofit,” said Hui. “All that we ask is that the Oxford Street Board fulfill its obligations as it relates to this contract and to the money that we’ve been advancing to allow us to buy those assets in the South End.”
Hui said they were still waiting on a response from the Oxford Street Board as of Monday.
“We are hoping that the Oxford Street Board understands that we’d rather not have to enforce this through more stringent means, that they recognize that the obligation exists and meet it,” she said.
Hui said the South End Village Academy is determined to keep the school open even if the board does not allow them to buy the South End assets.
“We will have to explore and have been actively exploring space options that we can build out for a medium and longer term future,” she said. “This will require a significant capital campaign to make that possible.”
The Croft School is currently expected to close on June 12, the last day of school.
