Private school’s fate uncertain amid financial allegations

Parents and teachers of a small downtown Atlanta private school will find out tonight whether the school can survive to open next school year.

The meeting was called after parents last week were told that the Atlanta New Century School may have financial problems. Some parents believed that meant the school would close but, on Monday, the school’s principal and its founder both said the school at this point remained open.

“If the parents are committed and ready to move forward, then there’s a way to move forward,” said New Century founder Cole Walker, who now lives in Huntsville, Ala.

The school, which opened in 1995 with 22 students, had by 2006 grown to 90 students in preschool through sixth grade. Last year, it moved to a new facility that “wound up being more expensive than anticipated,” Walker said.

“Typically, with schools with less than 100 kids, the financial costs are the thing they struggle with the most.”

Tonight’s meeting is at the school, located at 120 Ralph McGill Boulevard in the heart of downtown.

The school has followed an unconventional path since it opened in the basement of the Healey Building in the Fairlie-Poplar district. It found an academic niche offering multiage classes that allow children to move at their own pace.

But its struggle to remain financially viable — its tuition three years ago was $8,950, less than many established private schools but still more than some families could afford — underscores how much money and time it takes to build a private school from scratch.

Walker’s goal for the school was to enroll 250 students, but he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2006 that he had spent “six figures” on New Century every year since it opened.

On Monday, he said he has continued his financial support despite moving from Atlanta four years ago to work in his family’s real estate business.

Walker no longer has a hand in the school’s day-to-day operations. But its advisory board boasts a who’s who of Atlanta business people and educators. Over the years, it also caught the attention of several nationally recognized private schools in the metro Atlanta area including Woodward Academy in College Park.

Hank Payne, now deceased, informally advised New Century during his tenure as Woodward president and lauded what he called its “urban vision. Theirs is a notion that a great downtown has a great private school.”

Staff writer Nancy Badertscher contributed to this article.