Rally Planned To Save Harlem School Of The Arts

As the Harlem School of the Arts considers permanently closing, a group of parents is calling on the school's board of directors to disband. The head of the school's Parents Association Management Committee says he's lost confidence in the 6 people who are currently guiding the school's fund raising effort.

"We feel that the existing board cannot get funding for the school," said Ephraim Emmanuel, whose son spends his Saturdays learning to play piano and flute at HSA. "If the board has the best interests of the school at heart they would turn over the school to a new entity and have a fresh start. They have failed and one does not reward failure."

Last Thursday, school administrators announced the institution was essentially broke.

---

---

Classrooms were temporarily closed and teachers were furloughed. The board of trustees promised to decide whether the school could be reopened within a week.

In order to reopen, Interim Director John Corwin said he would need promises of $500,000 dollars to fund the rest of this semester and $400,000 to fund the summer term of classes.

Parents were blindsided by the school's closure.

"We thought it was an April Fool's joke," said Bobbi Booth, a 13-year-old who takes dance classes at Harlem School of the Arts.

Her grandmother and other parents say school leaders gave them no indication the 45-year-old institution was on the precipice of financial ruin.

"They hired an interim CEO. We had a meeting with the interim CEO. This was 3 weeks ago. They told us that there was no intention of closing the school," Emmanuel says. "We've since learned that someone has made an offer to purchase the building. We were even told someone was looking at the school yesterday!"

Even school administrators admit HSA has a history of financial mismanagement. Tax records show the school was bleeding money as early as 2006. By 2007 school managers had turned an $680,000 surplus fund balance into a $1.1 million deficit. Emmanuel says it was clear to parents no one was watching the purse strings.

"If you would have walked in, it was heavily overstaffed. We've had no access to the financial accounting of the school. It's a not-for-profit and they're supposed to publish their financial statements every year. As far as I know they have not done so for the last 3 years."

PIX News contacted a public relations consultant for the Harlem School of the Arts, but the call was not returned before this article was published. On Monday, the school's interim director did address the previous administration's fiscal failure.

"These types of financial problems did not arise overnight," Corwin admitted. "But we began to take the steps to restore financial health including the layoffs [of three administrators] and the termination of the prior chief executive."

The current board of directors plans to announce a decision about the school's future on Thursday. Whether or not the board comes up with new operating funds, Emmanuel is organizing a parent's rally outside the school's St. Nicholas Avenue entrance at 9:30am. Even if board members vote to close classrooms permanently, some parents see hope.

"Closing is one thing. It does not prevent it from being reopened ... My son made me promise, 'Daddy do not let that school close.'"