NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WTVF) – Some of Nashville’s most prestigious private schools have received millions of dollars in forgivable loans through the Federal Wage Protection Program (PPP).
But some of the schools decided to return the money to the federal government when they saw that enrollment had not dropped and there was no danger of firing employees because of COVID.
Other private schools say they have followed the program’s guidelines and intend to apologize for the loans – meaning they will not have to repay the money.
Private schools applied for PPP loans last spring, when Congress passed the CARES law and paid billions of dollars in emergency funding for the pandemic.
Traditional public schools do not qualify for PPP loans.
Franklin Road Academy received $ 2,063,100 from the Wage Protection Program, according to data from the Small Business Administration.
The data also shows that Harding Academy, an 8th grade private school in Belle Meade, received $ 1,204,500, while Nashville Christian Schools Inc. from Bellevue, for preschoolers through the 12th grade, received $ 1,043,300.
PPP loans are easily forgiven, which means that they are essentially free money if schools use most of the funds to ensure that employees were not fired during the pandemic.
“It’s very annoying to see the money there,” Metro councilor Dave Rosenberg said when I showed him what several private schools had received.
Rosenberg doubts that private schools have seen a drop in enrollment due to COVID, especially since parents have started taking their children out of public schools so they can attend a personal class.
“The PPP had to be targeted at small businesses that would otherwise have to lay off employees,” Rosenberg said.
“Private schools have a lot of sources of income, whether it’s facilities or tuition,” Rosenberg said.
Christ Presbyterian Academy on Old Hickory Boulevard received $ 3,189,529, but decided to return all federal money when the school realized enrollment had not dropped.
“We decided to return it because, honestly, if we don’t need it, we shouldn’t use it,” said Nate Morrow, who is the head of the CPA school.
“As we went through May and June, it became very clear, very quickly, that our families were going to return to CPA,” Morrow said.
He said the school asked for the money last spring, when no one was sure what impact the pandemic would have.
Montgomery Bell Academy also returned the PPP money it received.
The school received over $ 3 million, but decided it wanted to be a “good citizen” and return the money to others “not as well as resources,” according to principal Brad Gioia.
Father Ryan High School, a private Catholic school, received $ 1,948,600 in PPP loans.
Nashville Diocesan Communications Director Rick Musacchio said the school intends to keep the money and forgive the loans.
“We fully complied with the PPP program. It had requirements to retain all employees, which we certainly did,” Musacchio said.
Another Catholic school, Pope John Paul II High School in Hendersonville, received $ 1,139,100 from the PPP program.
Musacchio told us he intended to keep the money, even though the total number of registrations for Pope John Paul remained unchanged throughout the pandemic. He added that Father Ryan lost only three students.
NewsChannel 5 is investigating he asked, “If your parents keep paying tuition and tuition doesn’t go down, have you ever been in danger of firing people?”
Musacchio replied: “Yes. PPP loans have become very important because we have been able to focus on keeping people employed even in the face of the many challenges we have faced caused by COVID.”
Musacchio said more families need financial help because of the economic downturn, and schools have lost money critical to closing summer camps.
He said the loans helped pay off bus drivers and cafe workers who had no work during the stop.
Musacchio also said that Catholic schools have smaller schools than some of the other schools that have given loans back and do not believe that taking money has prevented small businesses from getting it.
“There are still funds available in PPP loans that the government has not yet released,” Musacchio said.
Currey Ingram Academy, a day school and boarding school for kindergarten through 12th grade, received $ 1,566,000.
The school’s website states that it helps students with learning disabilities to reach their full potential.
He sent a statement saying the school used federal money to pay employees at the “Child Development Center and Diagnostic Center, which are open to the public and could not operate during the extended quarantine.”
Councilor Dave Rosenberg said the frustrating thing was that public schools could not even apply for PPP loans.
“In a public school you can see PTOs struggling to raise $ 5,000 to $ 10,000,” Rosenberg said.
“When you increase the gap between public and private schools, it’s not good for us as a society. It’s not good for us as a city,” Rosenberg said.
We contacted all the schools in this story and some of them sent us the following statements.
Statement from Currey Ingram Academy
Against the background of uncertainty about what the next academic year would look like, Currey Ingram Academy applied for the Salary Protection Program in early 2020. The money received went to retain the faculty and staff of Currey Ingram Academy, as well as our staff at The Child Development Center and the Diagnostic Center – which are both open to the public and could not operate during the extended quarantine – employed during the crisis. It also focused on implementing health and safety measures to enable our students to return safely to personal learning in the fall. We recognize that businesses in almost every industry have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis, and we are grateful that we have been able to receive a small share to keep our employees and the community safe on campus.
Statement from the CPA
The Church (Christ Presbyterian Church) and the Academy have applied for the full amount offered, with the uncertainty of our families’ ability to pay for tuition or the ability of church members to contribute to annual donations during the pandemic. We are an organization that employs over 250 employees whose compensation depends on schooling, and securing our loan was a step forward in the uncertainty of the fiscal year. However, with the fall of 2020, our schooling income remained stable, allowing us to repay the full loan amount to other nonprofits that needed it most.
We are grateful that so many of our neighbors in the Nashville area and nonprofits have had access to financial aid and stability in the uncertainty of this pandemic.
Additional information from the Catholic Episcopate of Nashville
The loans helped all our entities avoid reducing wages to compensate for the loss of income during the pandemic. The loans not only kept people employed, as was the purpose of the program, but perhaps more importantly, saved many jobs that provide support services to meet a wide range of needs. For our non-school entities, the loans have allowed us to keep staff and expertise vital, allowing us to ensure the continuity of our services to the entire Nashville community. These would include providing affordable health care to low-income families, being a distribution arm chosen by the state of Tennessee to support tornado relief services, and being chosen by the city of Nashville to provide counseling and emergency relief services to affected families. for Christmas.
Loans related to our schools, for example, allowed schools to pay bus drivers and canteen workers, even if they did not have a job, because students were subject to “stay at home” orders. The funds also contributed to ensuring the EPP and supporting the implementation of protocols and changes necessary for the safe reopening of personal learning at the beginning of the academic year in August 2020. All 16 parish and diocesan schools were reopened for staff. learning according to schedule and the safety protocols and changes implemented allowed them to remain open throughout the year. Personal learning not only ensures the safety and education of both Catholic and non-Catholic students, but also relieves their families of the task of providing supervision and support to students engaged in distance learning programs.