Ginger, I didn't check to see if this had been posted under a different topic. If it has, feel free to delete it and save space.
Deborah
http://www.news-observer.com/news/story ... 2118c.htmlTuesday, June 24, 2003 5:13AM EDT
Haven for troubled boys has troubles of its own
Bankruptcy piques parents, Va. police
By CRAIG JARVIS, Staff Writer
Ted and Cindy Mitchell of Youngsville were desperate to find a place like Wellspring Academy, a private boarding school for troubled teenage boys in rural southern Virginia that offered a structured schedule and Christian counseling.
Like many other parents from the Triangle and throughout the country, the Mitchells paid the up-front tuition of $49,000 for a year and hoped for the best. But their hopes ended Easter weekend when the school closed amid a swirl of rumors and accusations.
The Mitchells -- who say they were out $63,500 after paying additional tuition to avoid a rate increase -- were livid after the school's owner, Bob Gluhareff of Raleigh, announced he would file for bankruptcy.
Now Virginia and federal investigators want to know whether Gluhareff defrauded parents by taking tens of thousands of dollars knowing he was about to go out of business.
Investigators also are looking at whether a counselor broke the law and triggered a panic that led to the school's closing when she sneaked four boys off campus and told their parents to come get them because Wellspring was collapsing.
Gluhareff blames the counselor for destroying his life's work.
Authorities are evaluating child-welfare conditions at the school and checking its tax records.
The disruption to teenagers in need of help is, for some parents, the most painful fallout of all.
"I don't want to ruin a man, but he's ruined a lot of families," Cindy Mitchell said. "He preyed on people that had nowhere else to go."
Gluhareff, 58, an ordained Baptist minister and longtime family counselor based in Raleigh, says it is ludicrous to suggest he intentionally went out of business.
"We are not embezzlers, we are not swindlers, we are not fraud people," Gluhareff says. "We gave and gave and gave. ... It's a sad, sad story if one family has lost $25,000, but I've lost everything I worked for all my life. Why would I tank my own school?"
Gluhareff started Wellspring in 1986 on 510 acres outside South Boston, about an hour north of the Triangle. It offered high school and two years of college instruction for at-risk boys ages 13 to 19, emphasizing a structured environment with Christian counseling.
Gluhareff initially recruited students from the Raleigh area and later from throughout the country. Students wore uniforms of khakis and polo shirts. They included teenagers ordered by judges to attend and boys whose parents thought they needed to be there.
Gluhareff made strong ties with Halifax County (Va.) authorities and the state Republican Party. Virginia's attorney general spoke at last year's commencement.
Gluhareff built the school to a peak enrollment of about 90 students and 60 staff members. Last year, its budget was nearly $3 million, with two-thirds coming from tuition and the rest from donations, tax records show.
A clash of styles
Lisa Grant was hired as a counselor in May 2002 fresh out of graduate school. Favoring thrift-shop attire, Grant tacked a poster of 1960s rock star Jim Morrison on her wall when she arrived. Her style didn't go over well, and she grew discontented.
She says that the youths at Wellspring were not counseled as often as parents were led to believe and that the daily schedule was not nearly as structured as claimed. Then, she says, she watched with alarm as financial problems grew.
Court records show that the school's food vendor claimed Wellspring failed to pay for goods for more than two months last year and later sued for $26,700. A local gas and fuel oil company sued for nearly $6,000 in unpaid bills, and an auto mechanic sued for $1,000 overdue for repairs.
Late last year, the staff took a 20 percent pay cut; this year, a security staff member quit. Grant's paycheck bounced at the end of March but was made good the next week. Her next paycheck, on April 18, was postponed for the weekend.
Grant, 40, a single mother of three, said she decided to quit that day and, on an impulse, piled four boys into her car and slipped them off campus. She began calling their parents and telling them to pick up their sons because the school was going out of business.
The school phones began ringing nonstop with calls from alarmed parents. Gluhareff called sheriff's deputies and reported that Grant had kidnapped the boys.
Word of Grant's escapade spread through the 30 or so boys who were not on spring break, Gluhareff said. They began to rebel, he said, refusing to wear the school uniform and threatening to burn the dorms down.
"The kids were electrified," he said. "... All of a sudden, the school looked like something out of 'Blackboard Jungle.' "
On Easter, operations were suspended and Grant's car mysteriously burned in her front yard.
On April 30, Gluhareff wrote parents that he would have to keep the school closed, blaming the economy, parents' failure to pay tuition on time and Grant's actions. Two weeks later, his attorney told parents in a letter that Gluhareff had no choice but to declare bankruptcy.
Parents react
About a dozen parents planned a response, including a campaign to draw news media attention, to complain to the North Carolina board that licenses counselors and to look into suing. They grew angrier as they shared their stories.
A divorced Virginia couple, whose son began at Wellspring in October, paid more than $54,000 because the school was collecting double tuition from them. Karen McCollum says Gluhareff and the school president separately told her and her former husband that the other one wasn't going to pay.
Gluhareff says that was because of a clerical error and miscommunication, but McCollum remains furious. She says she told him in a phone call that he had betrayed her trust.
"You devastated my family, you devastated my son, you forced us into a financial situation I don't know we'll ever recover from," McCollum says she told him. "I don't care how long it takes, how much money it costs, how hard it is -- my mission in life now is to see you never open another school or other type of facility as long as you live."
Gluhareff, in turn, began soliciting letters of support from parents and staff to send to investigators. He says he and his wife planned to retire at Wellspring and be buried on the grounds.
He says he had recently put a $10,000 down payment on a gym and had been expecting $135,000 in tuition and donations within the coming week. But he says that wouldn't have been enough to avoid bankruptcy because Wellspring survived month to month without a reserve, in large part because it gave scholarships to many families who couldn't afford tuition.
Most of the parents of the 70 or so boys who were enrolled at Wellspring when it closed have not complained publicly. Some, including Jenny Openshaw of Alabama, say they aren't angry at Gluhareff, even though they lost tuition, because Wellspring helped their son so much.
"I think he has the best intentions, and this was his dream," Openshaw says. "I just weep for him it's turned out this way."
This month, Gluhareff said Grant might have taken revenge after learning that she was going to be fired that weekend. However, his April 30 letter to parents described her as a "trusted counselor."
Under investigation
This is not the first time Gluhareff has been in a dispute with a former employee: In 1999, a female staffer sued him in Wake County, alleging he seduced her and coaxed her grandfather into paying more than $60,000 to counsel her, her sister and her mother. Gluhareff denied it and countersued for slander; both suits were settled out of court.
Investigators expect to take at least six months, and maybe a year, to sort out the accusations, said Lt. Ann Barber of the Virginia State Police. She said that the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Postal Inspection Service are involved and that investigators are just gathering facts at this point.
"It's a very complex case," Barber said. "We'll just determine if a violation of law has occurred."
Gluhareff has returned to Raleigh and opened a counseling practice. He says he is contemplating reopening the school.
Staff writer Craig Jarvis can be reached at 829-4576 or
[email protected].
