SOS I know I'm BU but Independent school board thwarting chance to save our school. What can we do?

[BengalGal]

My girls attend an independent Quaker school that has a focus on good teaching and a nurturing and inclusive environment. Lately The board of governors have done a bad job of running the school. They recently announced to the world and the parents, that they would be closing in a few weeks forever. Because of finances and falling enrollment. It's a 300 year old school on beautiful grounds in England. Kids are heartbroken. The community also uses the facilities and quite a few kids have bursaries. Since the announcement kids have found new schools, but many or most wanted to stay. Teachers and parents and alumni are heartbroken too.

There is evidence of something dodgy, two bursars left suddenly. The accounts don't seem to be available to anyone. (I thought the were legally required to make them available to anyone interested?)

Parents tried to come up with solutions but the board or senior manage were not encouraging. There was a mandatory review period you see.

Then a wonderful nonprofit made an offer and it looked like the school would be saved. (They gave them the offer 3 weeks ago, last week the school said they would accept it).

The nonprofit found the board a bit secretive, but the board today said they would give them the documents required for due diligence. However, they also said at the end of the 3 to 4 week due diligence period the board might decide not to go forward with the partnership. (A merger was envisioned, maintaining the character of the school)

With that degree of uncertainty the nonprofit would not be able to offer kids places for September. And they would incur a lot of time and expense in the due diligence process without a commitment from the board So they had to withdraw their offer.

I want to personally yell at these board members. I hate them. I want to shake them. One of them doesn't even believe independent schools should exist.

Is there any way to fire them? They just want to sabatoge the school after running it down. I suspect something dodgy.

What would be a reasonable thing to do?

Any experts? Any experience? And press most welcome!

This school can and should be saved. A parent found the savior. Now the board of governors is stopping it !!! Arrrggghhh!!!!

BengalGal - presumably anyone who is interested (ie. current parents or prospective parents) will also already know who the Governors are and are already aware of the situation. I know that there has been a lot of work being undertaken locally within education to find places for children especially those poor families with children about to go into yr 11 and yr 13 with public exams in the upcoming year.

I am local to that school just up the road in the main town nearby (where my kids are at a different independent). I have friends who had kids at the school closing. There is a lot of competition especially 8 miles up the road from the closing school from highly rated independent schools and it is a shame that it is just not financially viable to keep it open in its current form (possibly because of the amount of competition nearby).

If as you say in your post above one of the conditions that was being imposed was to accept an as yet unquantified offer then the Board would be in breach of their fiduciary duties as a Trustee to accept such a condition.

The school is and has always been a charity. The terms of the original Quaker grant of the property was that it was to be retained for educational purposes. There was even an offer I believe at one point for the property to be donated to the state for use as a school.

There has, as far as I am aware, been no suggestion that any form of fraudulent activity has taken place and I am rather shocked that you'd imply this to be the case.

Of course, bursars will be leaving to take up new positions as will most of the staff I suspect. Why would they stay if they have managed to secure jobs elsewhere.

Of course, families will also be taking up places at other schools because they would be mad to turn them down if they don't even know whether the school will be open in September.

I assume this thread may be deleted by MN soon!

Can't see why the thread would be deleted. I'm very local too and it's all over my Facebook feed.

I have no idea if there is anything fraudulent but I do know the board is being unreasonable. The offer was quantified and the school did its own due diligence before accepting Diagramas offer in principle. This letter just blames Diagrama but the fact is the were a) slow to give Diagrama documents necessary for it to do its own due diligence, b) refused to sign anything to commit to Diagrama so places could be guaranteed for September. C) hinted they might walk after Diagrama finished its due diligence( and spent 3 weeks of lawyers time on the process, expensive.

No, we don't have contact details for the board. Maybe someone does. I very much want to talk to them. The names I have are listed as trustees on the charity commission website, is that the same as board members?

The members of the Board of Governors are all listed on the school's website.

Wow. Sorry. That's crap.

I assumed it may be deleted because it is potentially libelous - saying that they think there is fraud afoot! (Remember the TripAdvisor thread). MN would have to give the OP's details.

You seem to know a lot about Diagramma's position, OP, and rather less about the school.

Do you have a particular interest in thus?

I am local to the school. I think fundamentally the school will not survive - you only have to look at the staff head count and the pupil headcount to realise that the numbers were never going to add up.

That said, I do think that the Governors do have a question to answer. This situation was a long time in the making, and yet appeared to be a complete surprise. I do think the school should have been viable - Cambridge private schools are a) competitive and b) a nightmare to get to from south of the city, so you could get a lot of people from south Cambs. However, that horse has bolted, and I don't know what you would gain from making further demands on the governors - the school isn't going to reopen.

I know the school of old. It has struggled for numbers for a long, long time.

There is no really compelling selling point: for Quakers there are better, more Quakerly schools available, it is not a bastion of academic excellence nor sporty, thespy etc.

The low numbers make a lot of things, from 6th form teaching to extra-curricular activities, harder to do.

The state school up the road is excellent, and for those determined to go private both Cambridge and Stortford have better options.

It will be a shame if it closes. I expect we'll hear in due course that the building will be turned into flats and the playing fields will become a housing estate. Developers have had their eyes on that site for years.

Well it seems there has been another plan that suits the board or someone better. Probably a sale that benefits them somehow. My only interest was seeing a 300 year old school last, and as a parent of kids there. Some of the patents worked closely with Diagrama and we had a Facebook group and we attended a meeting. For sure there should be some investigation because what's happened goes against the charter. There was a viable alternative offered, they investigated and accepted, kids were so happy, and the very day that the charter mandated time period to find a solution ended the management backed out, and blamed the nonprofit for its own tactics to essentially destroy the school.

Parents not patents, after the offer was accepted the school organized two meetings for us to meet Diagrama, learn more of their proposal, and ask questions. We also mailed them a list of questions and they wrote back.

Any place can be development land. But you can just create a 300 year old tradition.

If the board have set out to deliberately destroy the school then the board members could be liable.

I don't mean this to sound rude but do you think that you're thinking the worst of the board because the school means so much to you and you don't want to lose it?