A small private Bucks County day school that suddenly closed its door last month has filed for bankruptcy protections, leaving dozens of parents and former employees wondering if they’ll ever see refunds.
United Friends School filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 on Aug. 14, one week after the school’s attorney announced a comprehensive review of its assets and obligations to determine what money will be available to parents, employees and creditors was underway.
Over the weekend, though, parents and former employees, received notices about the bankruptcy filing in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania listing them among the school’s creditors.
The court
has set an Aug. 28 deadline for the school to provide a summary of assets and liabilities and a statement of financial affairs, according to the bankruptcy filing docket.
Under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, Chapter 7 provides for liquidation, and for the school it means its assets are part of the bankruptcy estate and they must be sold with the distribution of the proceeds to creditors.
Funding or property given to the nonprofit under contracted donor restrictions or held in a charitable trust for a specific programmatic purpose are generally excluded from the bankruptcy estate; it means those assets cannot be used to pay general creditors, but are typically transferred to a similar nonprofit.
Attorney Christine Shubert, the Chapter 7 trustee responsible for administering the estate, said she is unable to answer questions until she conducts an examination of the debtor scheduled for next month.
Alex Moretsky, the attorney representing the school, immediately responded to Aug. 24 emails seeking more information on the bankruptcy. Moretsky and trustees also have not responded to requests for commentsince the school announced with five days-notice that it was closing its doors after 42 years on July 15.
Trustees have cited low enrollment for the 2026-27 school year as making continued operations financially unfeasible. Annual tuition at the school was $20,000 per student last year.
Multiple parents and staff contend the closure announcement and news of the school’s financial troubles caught them completely off guard.
They have expressed frustration with trustees over a lack of transparency about finances, and most were unaware that the trustees had sold the school main building on West Broad Street in Quakertown and other properties in early 2025.
Parents alleged the school continued accepting prepaid tuition payments up until the day the closing was announced. The school also operated a summer day camp program that parents prepaid for, but ended with the closure announcement.
Former employees have alleged they are owed paychecks for the second half of July and August.
The Bucks County Consumer Protection Department, the District Attorney’s Office and Quakertown police are investigating the school’s closure.
Kelly Kringe, a Bucks County resident whose two children attended the school, described her children’s educational experience at the school as “wonderful,” but the lack of transparency from trustees before, and after, the closure is troubling.
She alleges the school deducted a tuition payment for the upcoming school year from her bank account the same day the school closure was announced.
“With the bankruptcy filing, we have very little confidence that tuition and camp payments made by our family and many others will be returned,” she said.
Another parent, who alleged last year her family made a $100,000 donation to the school, said families are actively exploring “every legal avenue available to hold leadership personally accountable."
“If leadership thinks a bankruptcy filing ends their obligations to these families, they are sorely mistaken,” said the parent, who did not want to be identified. “When a board continues to collect tuition right up until the doors close while insolvent, that crosses the line into fiduciary failure.”
Crime and Courts Reporter Jo Ciavaglia can be reached at jciavaglia@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: United Friends School files for bankruptcy | Exclusive
