(Bloomberg) – Manhattan Country School is an Upper West Side private school that promotes social justice and progressive academic programs that are fighting potential foreclosures.
The MCS asked the court to protect Friday, placing assets and liabilities between $10 million and $50 million. The school operates on a sliding scale tuition model based on household payment capabilities, and he said it suffered losses during the 199 pandemic, thus helping affected parents by lowering prices. The maximum annual tuition fee is $59,000.
Parents have been worried about the financial and future of MCS since Flushing Bank’s foreclosure action in October. Propose Chapter 11 efforts and other collection actions to stop the school from operating properly when trying to resolve the lawsuit.
MCS is the latest advancement school that has fought financially. Blue School, a progressive arts school founded by members of the Blue People Group, closed in 2023 after experiencing debt trouble after falling enrollment rates during the pandemic.
“There are different and sad situations here, and it’s usually what I see new schools failing,” said education consultant Emily Glickman, who helped families accept private school admissions and received a worry call from MCS parents before filing on Friday. “MCS is a school with a long history in New York City.”
The bankruptcy attorney representing the MCS did not immediately return the news seeking comments. The school said in a bankruptcy petition that its property on Manhattan’s 85th Street is worth $38 million.
MCS, which received its initial $2.5 million loan in 2017, said it was in talks with Flushing Bank in court documents when the foreclosure was filed last October. Flushing allegedly owed at least $3 million in interest.
According to the school’s website, the MCS’ student body was founded in 1966 to reflect “the vision of the civil rights movement” and “no racial majority and broad economic diversity.” The school serves kindergarten through eighth graders in Manhattan and owns a farm in Roxbury, New York, where classes in cooking, agriculture, nature and textiles are held.
The case is a rural Manhattan school in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern New York Region 25-11009
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