Last Friday, there was an article in the Times Union about The Free School in Albany and its financial problems: "How the Albany Free School sold off its real estate portfolio." The article reports that the school, which Wikipedia claims is "the oldest independent, inner-city alternative school in the United States," has in recent years "hemorrhaged money and students."
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| Photo: Jim Franco | Times Union |
When the Times Union visited the school in November, it was down to a single teacher and fewer than two dozen students. A housing nonprofit from the city of Hudson had agreed to pay the school’s bills in exchange for tuition, while the nonprofit's senior policy advisor, Quintin Cross—who had been in a relationship with the school's sole instructor—had joined its board of directors. Its leadership said the school had spent its small endowment and was effectively out of money.
The article the Times Union published in November 2023 about the Free School, "Albany's Free School, nation's oldest urban alternative school, is dying," provides more information about the relationship between the Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition and the Albany Free School. The following is quoted from that November article:
In a last-ditch attempt—and unusual move—to save the school, a housing nonprofit from 35 miles away in Hudson has taken over. The coalition got involved two years ago because its senior policy advisor, Quintin Cross, advocated for the school. Cross' children attended part-time while being homeschooled, and his mother, Sanon, is the head teacher.
The Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition said it is now paying the school’s National Grid bill and any other bills, which would include teacher salaries. In exchange, it is keeping all tuition payments and 5 percent of any fundraising.
It seems that in the months that have passed since November, the Times Union realized that the only teacher at the Free School is not Cross's mother but rather someone with whom he "had been in a relationship."
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Following Up: The February newsletter of the Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition includes this information about the Albany Free School.
This is the kind of investigative reporting we need more of locally
ReplyDeleteAs a friend of Quinton, an education journalist for a couple decades, former member of the HCSD board of education, and founder of the non-profit School Life Media, I can say we have many more problems to worry about right here in Hudson: a public school district that spends more than $25,000 per student (some 55 million in taxpayer dollars) and only educates a third of them. --peter meyer
ReplyDeletePerhaps this explains why HCHC can’t pay rent in Catskill. Is supporting education within its not for profit articles of incorporation? It’s bylaws? A broke school that has essentially no staff, no faculty, but a handful of students and doesn’t own its property 2 counties away. I get the emotional pull, not the sustainability argument — unless going bankrupt is liberating.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that the head of the school being his girlfriend had nothing to do with it.
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