KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Dozens of former employees of the Afrikan Centered Education Academy will not be receiving their final paychecks this week after the former operators of the school told them that there isn’t enough money to pay them, and that they will be filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday.
The nearly 70 former employees of the school, which was taken over by the Kansas City Missouri School District and renamed the African Centered College Preparatory Academy amid allegations of financial mismanagement over the summer, received an email from The Afrikan Centered Education Task Force Inc. on Wednesday claiming that the their bank – Liberty Bank and Trust – moved $11,000 from a payroll account to offset an outstanding loan balance, and that the group will file for bankruptcy protection on Friday.
“Here we, we’re at this again. We thought this was over. We though we’d be paid,” said former ACE English teacher Shantelle Tomlin. She and other employees also had a delay in getting their paychecks earlier this summer which they were told was due to a dispute with the Kansas City Missouri School District.
Neither the Afrikan Centered Education Task Force Inc., its attorney or the Kansas City Missouri School District returned calls from FOX 4 for comment.
“We did the job they asked us to do, which was to educated those children and keep them in line,” said another former ACE employee, Jesse Hall. “And we did that, now we’re the ones left holding the bag.”
Hall says that he’s concerned about the status of his 401k account.
“I think i’ve got about $1,400 in that account. I’ve not heard anything from anybody as to where my money is,” said Hall.
Tomlin says that she and the other former ACE employees aren’t going down without a fight.
‘We plan to file a suit against ACETFI, and take whatever means necessary in order to get our funds,” said Tomlin.