By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The American Boychoir School has sung its final tune, as school officials this week decided to close a school that had sought bankruptcy protection as recently as two years ago in an ultimately failed attempt to keep itself going.
In a message posted at the school Internet home page, Robert D’Avanzo, the chairman of the American Boychoir board of trustees, explained Tuesday the plight in which the school found itself. Enrollment fell, such that it could count on having only 19 to 21 students to begin the school year, and there were other financial problems that could not be overcome. The school, which had been in Princeton for more than half a century before moving, was most recently a tenant at Rambling Pines Summer Day Camp, in Hopewell.
“On Monday evening, after a second extended meeting in as many nights, the Board of Trustees decided that the school cannot be opened this fall,” he wrote. “We will proceed to wind down operations as soon as practicable, return all tuition deposits, notify Rambling Pines that ABS will not renew its lease, address the impact on our staff and students, and cancel all concert commitments.”
American Boychoir was set to begin its 80th season, for boys in grades four to eight. The school, originally founded in Ohio in 1937, moved to Princeton 13 years later. On its Facebook page, it describes itself as “the only non-sectarian boys’ choir school in the nation.”
But it was rocked by scandal in the early 2000s amid allegations by former students who claimed to be sexually abused during their time there. Selling its Princeton property “Albermarle,” American Boychoir moved first to Plainsboro in 2012 and more recently to Rambling Pines for the past two academic years.
Earlier this month, the school had announced it was having auditions, including one on Aug. 21. And in June, D’Avanzo was touting how the school would be going on tour, including performing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
But in his message, D’Avanzo pointed to a surprising drop in enrollment.
“In addition, at that level of enrollment, the amount of tuition we can expect to collect, after taking into account substantial grants of need-based financial aid, would be sharply lower than we had anticipated,” he wrote. “Even with the continued generous support of the ABS community, the anticipated revenues would not support our operations, which include the satisfaction of our obligations under our Chapter 11 plan of reorganization.”
“When the lower enrollment and related lower tuition revenue are taken together with the constricted cash position,” he wrote, “the conclusion is as clear as it is unpleasant: ABS does not have the cash it needs to open the school and cannot reasonably anticipate revenues that would allow it to finish the school year if it did open. If the school were opened in that position we expect that we would be forced to close it within one or two months. We cannot do that to our students, to their families, or to our staff.”
Rob Jordan, whose family owns Rambling Pines, said Wednesday that he was notified Tuesday of the school’s decision. He said the news “came as a surprise.”
D’Avanzo could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Messages left at the school were not returned.
Former Boychoir board member and current Princeton Councilman Tim Quinn had no comment Wednesday.
In the past school year, there were at least seven BoyChoir students from Princeton, said Superintendent of Schools Stephen C. Cochrane on Wednesday.
“We’re sad to see the school closed,” he said, “and would welcome the students if they chose to come here.”
