NYMA won’t be opening on Sept. 14, as announced in a recent letter from Anthony Desa, the president of the Board of Trustees. He had addressed the letter to faculty members, alumni and students.
The question of how the school could open was raised this morning in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Poughkeepsie. Judge Cecelia Morris wanted to know how it was possible.
“That’s not necessarily going to happen, your honor,” NYMA’s attorney, Lewis Wrobel, admitted. He said a second letter would go out today to clarify the school’s situation. He reported having $100,000 from the school’s potential buyer, Global Preparation Academies, and he said he hoped to have the full down payment of $1.2 million by Sept. 15.
Judge Morris leaned forward and spoke directly to the attorney and his client who was sitting next to him. “The idea the letter went out is appalling to me,” she said without raising her voice. “The idea that some one is blatantly lying to these students gets my ire up pretty high. How many students have you enrolled?” she wanted to know.
“No one has signed up,” Mr. Wrobel responded. “No money has been taken.”
Before closing the hearing, the judge asked if anyone else wanted to address the court. Courtney L. Morgan, Esq., an attorney from Washington, D.C., got up from the audience and approached a microphone facing the front of the court. She was representing the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, a federal government agency that had 15 participants from NYMA. She said the agency had never been notified of the bankruptcy.
“It makes me wonder what else is missing,” Judge Morris said, before setting the next hearing for 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 24. That would be a week and a day before the Oct. 2 foreclosure sale. So far, nothing has happened to make that sale unnecessary.
Global Preparation Academies had an attorney at the hearing. He told representatives from the Town of Cornwall that Global had just engaged him on Aug. 28,
