New School will close due to money woes

Citing insurmountable financial difficulties, the board of the University City New School unanimously voted early yesterday morning to close the school at the end of the academic year. Last month, New School officials learned of $100,000 worth of occupancy violations in the building that was supposed to become the school's new home in September. The 90-student school initiated a fundraising campaign to repair the new building, located at 48th Street and Baltimore Avenue, but officials only raised $25,000 of the necessary funds. The board met immediately Monday night after a meeting for New School parents where board members asked parents to re-enroll their children for the upcoming year and to write tuition checks. Deliberating into early yesterday morning, the board voted to close the school because only 47 re-enrollment contracts were signed at the parents meeting. The school needed 85 signed contracts to stay afloat. "Of course I am very disappointed that we had to vote to close," said D.L. Wormley, co-chairwoman of the New School board. "We'll be taking away a very good educational option for families, and that is tragic." The New School was displaced from its current home by plans for the Penn-assisted public school, which is scheduled for a partial opening this fall. Steve Schutt, the University's point-man on the public school project, said he was disappointed that the New School was closing. "I think it's a regret that the board reached the decision it did," Schutt said. "We at the University took numerous steps to try to prevent it." Schutt said that on Monday, Penn offered to provide the New School with a $75,000 loan to cover the unforeseen costs of the relocation. However, according to New School Admissions Director Elene Kavitsky, the loan was contingent upon the New School discounting tuition by $2,500 for the 20 students who live in University City and whose parents work for Penn. She said that Penn already provides this discount, and asked the New School to kick in an additional $2,500 per student if they were to take the loan. But Kavitsky said the New School could not afford to match the funds provided by Penn to these families. Penn's tuition incentives for New School students are part of an effort to keep staff members in the neighborhood until the public school fully opens. But Schutt denied that the University placed these conditions on the loan. "The only thing we communicated to the New School is that we would give them a low-interest rate [loan] of $75,000," Schutt said. "As far as I'm concerned, if they call tomorrow and say that they want to stay open and need the loan, that would be okay," he added. As the New School's landlord, Penn has forgiven loan and rent payments on several occasions over the past several years. More recently, the University pledged to contribute $200,000 to the New School's total relocation costs of $450,000. With yesterday's decision, New School principal Betty Ratay is now aiding parents by providing lists of alternate schools. "I really wish we could come up with some alternative plan," New School parent Sharon Thompson-Schill said. "We got 45 contracts. That... shows enough interests for some kind of a plan."