Saturday, May 21, 2011

Byrnes Schools of Florence: Enrollment Still Down

Before we begin, the BSBS blog would like to thank all of those who have posted and/or emailed their support in recent days.  We're already number one in search engine rankings for anything related to Byrnes and bankruptcy, finances, salary, sex offenders, etc., and we're on the first or second page in most other searches.  For those who wish to help, link to our site from your site or your Facebook and help continue to drive traffic and search rank so we may continue to spread the word. 

Also, for those who've asked how they can help, a request for information:  In 2004, current Byrnes headmaster John Colby was headmaster for Patrick Henry Academy in Estill, SC.  From their financial documents, it looks like Mr. Colby's employment was terminated in the middle of his contract and he left the state immediately afterwards.  This is highly unusual and financial documents don't tell the whole story, so anyone who does know, please hit us up in the comments or in an email.  It may be nothing and totally innocuous, or there may be a story that goes with it that parents and faculty would be interested in hearing. 

A number have asked about our investigation into parents and others at the Byrnes School.  While this will be the subject of future posts as we gather more information, we can say that we've already found a number of parents who have filed for bankruptcy themselves, some very recently and not people you would expect.  We've found a current board member dodging the IRS and actually being sued by the IRS, not to mention his being sued for legal malpractice and other such things.  And we haven't even gotten to the juicy stuff yet!  Look for a larger post in the future as we lay out our findings and show the other parents what sort of people are sending their kids to Byrnes.

Enrollment at the school for next year continues to be down substantially.  March 31st was the deadline for early enrollment, so we should now have a good idea of what enrollment looks like for next year.  In perusing their most recent operating reports and tuition reports per their cash collateral settlement, it is clear that enrollment is still down well over 50% over where it needs to be.  Depending on how they've done their accounting, the number could be anywhere from 50-60% down.  Of course, when your finance director's only qualification is a degree from an online-only college, you have to allow for some fluctuation in the accounting.  She's already had to resubmit a number of forms to the court because they were missing something, so this may not be completely reliable either. So, while some students will probably trickle in over the summer, it's hard to believe that more than half of the entire student body will wait til the last minute to renew.  Clearly, people realize that the school will probably not be here much longer and don't want their kids left without a place to go, though about half are still believing the lies and the spin proffered by the board and administration.

A strong piece of evidence for this is a name missing from the enrollment list for next year: Ashby Gregg.  Mr. Gregg has been a long time Byrnes supporter and even president of the board at one time, but it looks like he has chosen to remove his children from the school for next year.  We noticed this omission back in March, but now that it's May and he still isn't on the list, we can assume that he's decided to send his kids elsewhere.  When a major supporter who is in the know takes his kids out, other parents need to evaluate their own decision and ask themselves what Mr. Gregg knows that they don't know.  Just like a restaurant where the owner won't eat the food, be careful what you swallow.

Maybe he realizes the just how precarious their financial situation is at this point.  Perhaps he doesn't want his children playing so close to a convicted rapist or one of the only convicted child sex predators in the county.  Maybe he got tired of being lied to by the lies of John Isgett and Tom Goodson, men whose lies and spins are well documented here in previous posts. In any case, Mr. Gregg's choice to pull his kids from the school should weigh heavily in parents' minds as they decide where to send their own children next year.