All campuses closed effective Monday, April 27
SANTA ANA, Calif. -- (Business Wire)
Corinthian Colleges, Inc. (Nasdaq: COCO) today announced that the
Company has ceased substantially all operations and discontinued
instruction at its remaining 28 ground campuses. The company is working
with other schools to provide continuing educational opportunities for
its approximately 16,000 students. Corinthian said those efforts depend
to a great degree on cooperation with partnering institutions and
regulatory authorities.
Campuses closed include Corinthian’s 13 remaining Everest and WyoTech
campuses in California, Everest College Phoenix and Everest Online Tempe
in Arizona, the Everest Institute in New York, and 150-year-old Heald
College—including its 10 locations in California, one in Hawaii and one
in Oregon.
Since signing an operating agreement with the U.S. Department of
Education in July 2014, the Company has been focused on completing the
orderly sale or wind-down of all of its schools. In November 2014, the
Company announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell 56
Everest and WyoTech campuses to Zenith Education Group, Inc., a
subsidiary of ECMC Group. As part of that sale, Zenith also agreed to
conclude the teach-out process at 12 additional schools that were being
closed. That transaction was completed in February of this year for all
but three locations, the Everest College Phoenix campuses in Phoenix and
Mesa, AZ, and Everest Institute in Rochester, NY. As a result of the
sale, nearly forty thousand students were able to continue their studies
and thousands of employees kept their jobs. Zenith has recently advised
Corinthian that it will not consummate the purchase of Everest College
Phoenix, and the closing conditions have not been satisfied for Everest
Institute Rochester.
In parallel, the Company had been in advanced negotiations with several
parties to both sell the 150-year-old Heald College and to arrange for
teach-out partners to allow its Everest College and WyoTech students in
California to continue their education. The Company said these efforts
were unsuccessful largely as a result of federal and state regulators
seeking to impose financial penalties and conditions on buyers and
teach-out partners.
“We believe that we have attempted to do everything within our power to
provide a quality education and an opportunity for a better future for
our students,” said Jack Massimino, Chief Executive Officer of
Corinthian. “Unfortunately the current regulatory environment would not
allow us to complete a transaction with several interested parties that
would have allowed for a seamless transition for our students. I would
like to thank our employees for their selfless dedication and commitment
to fulfilling the educational and career goals of all of our students.”
The Company said that its historic graduation rate and job placement
rates compared favorably with community colleges. Corinthian also said
that approximately 40 percent of its students previously attended a
traditional higher education institution where their needs had not been
met before attending a Corinthian school.
“Colleges like ours fill an important role in the broader education
system and address a critical need that remains largely unmet by
community colleges and other public sector schools,” Massimino said.
“Overall, our schools did a good job for the students they served. We
made every effort to address regulators’ concerns in good faith. Neither
our Board of Directors, our management, our faculty, nor our students
believe these schools deserved to be forced to close.”
Further information about the company and the closures can be found on
Corinthian’s website, http://www.cci.edu/.
ABOUT CORINTHIAN:
Corinthian was one of the largest post-secondary education companies in
North America. It offered diploma and degree programs that prepared
students for careers in demand or for advancement in their chosen
fields. Program areas included health care, business, criminal justice,
transportation technology and maintenance, construction trades and
information technology.
Contacts:
The Abernathy MacGregor Group
Alan Maltun
213-630-6550
am@abmac.com
or
Rosemary
Wilson
213-630-6550
rdw@abmac.com
Source: Corinthian Colleges, Inc.
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