Wright Career College files bankruptcy, leaves employees unpaid

Wright Career College filed Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy on Friday, a day after telling employees and students it was closing.

The company said in the e-mail received by staff Thursday evening that it will not issue paychecks on Friday for work employees have already performed. Students have been directed to other colleges.

The college has a location at Towne East Square, as well as in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Omaha and Overland Park.

The email, signed by college president John Mucci, ended with an apology to faculty and staff:

“I am so sorry for the way things ended. Each one of you is a valued professional and have changed the lives of many of our students. It was a privilege to work with each of you.”

On Friday, the Overland Park-based college filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Kansas City, Kan., under its corporate name of Mission Group Kansas Inc. It estimated liabilities and assets each of $1 million to $10 million, and creditors numbering between 1,000 and 5,000.

“There are a lot of angry people, I understand that,” said Neil Sader, a bankruptcy attorney with Sader Law Firm in Kansas City who is representing the school.

“But there was no way the college could continue. We now are operating under court supervision and proceeding as best we can under chaotic conditions.”

Wichita student Rayna Barber said Friday that she was just a few weeks away from graduating with an associate’s degree in accounting. She said she has no idea how she will get that diploma now.

Barber said she has racked up $30,000 in loans in taking various courses of study at Wright Career College, and the college was supposed to write her a check for $5,000 in financial aid that it received on her behalf, but had not been spent.

“Now they are closing. Where does that leave me?” she said Friday.

A message left at Wright Career College corporate office was not returned Friday.

A bankruptcy service has set up a website for students and employees to get information about the Wright case. Carl Clark, an attorney with Lentz Clark Deines in Overland Park, will serve as bankruptcy trustee.

The college, in its email Thursday evening, said it would provide its 200 employees with information on how to make claims for lost pay.

The Kansas Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Labor both said that, while they have procedures for collecting unpaid wages under normal circumstances, they probably can’t help if a company files bankruptcy. They said that employees may have to seek their wages through the bankruptcy court.

Mucci, in an interview in early March, denied the college was in serious financial trouble, although he acknowledged some financial difficulty and the laying off what he termed a few non-essential, non-academic staff members.

At the time, Mucci blamed the college’s financial difficulties on falling enrollment caused by the strengthening of the economy. The school had about 1,000 students.

Then, a week later, the college said that it was exploring merging with other colleges, but that classes would continue.

The school provided certificate training in a variety of medical, business and technology areas. It was founded in 1921 to train typists and originally was known as Dickinson Business School.

Hundreds of Wright students and graduates have joined a 2013 lawsuit against the college, accusing the school of “a systematic, deceptive marketing scheme” to entice students to enroll and apply for student loans they can’t pay back.

The lawsuit, which seeks a refund of the students’ tuition and unspecified damages, also claimed Wright deceived students about attendance costs, employment prospects and the value of the school’s accreditation.

This story was originally published April 15, 2016 at 8:51 AM with the headline "Wright Career College files bankruptcy, leaves employees unpaid."