The American Boychoir School filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Friday and has to get an immediate infusion of cash to keep its doors open.
Robert D’Avanzo, chairman of the school’s Board of Trustees, issued an appeal letter saying the boarding school needed $350,000 to finish the current academic year. He made clear the school is in dire shape.
“I need to be as clear as possible: staying open depends on the school’s ability to raise the cash to cover our payroll and other current expenses going forward,” he wrote. “If we are not able to do that in very short order, cancellation of the remaining concert schedule and immediate closure of the school will be the only alternative.”
If that were to occur, it was not immediately known where the current students would go to school. Boychoir officials could not be reached for comment.
According to its website, the school has 50 students in grades four to eight. Of those, 30 board at the school, while the other 20 are day students, the site said.
“We have an educational mission to complete, and we also have some wonderful concerts on the schedule,” Mr. D’Avanzo wrote. “But at present we simply do not have the resources to carry ABS through the spring to graduation.”
“As many of you know, the Concert Choir is about to leave on its spring tour of Texas and the Southeast. We expect that tour to proceed and succeed. Where the school will stand upon the boys’ return is the critical question,” he wrote.
“A more significant level of funding estimated at $3 million will be required for the school to successfully emerge from Chapter 11 and continue operations into the future,” he wrote.
The school was started in 1937 in Columbus, Ohio, and subsequently relocated to Princeton, its home starting 1950, and moved in 2013 to Plainsboro.
“Since 1937,” the school website reads, “the American Boychoir School has offered talented boys from across the United States and around the world a unique educational experience and the opportunity to sing in the nation’s leading professional boychoir.”
