Prestigious school in financial turmoil
Premier Elite Athletes’ Collegiate remains open during legal dispute
Premier Elite Athletes’ Collegiate (PEAC) bills itself as a top-tier private school for sports stars and boasts the “best hockey program in North America,” with celebrated NHL rookie Connor McDavid as its marquee alumnus.
It’s also at the centre of a bitter dispute over the sale of the school in 2014, leaving the prestigious institution in financial disarray, according to court documents reviewed by the Star. The school remains open with about 100 students, and it is unclear whether the legal action will threaten its continued operation.
Private schools in Ontario exist with little oversight — a 2013 auditor general’s report concluded the province has one of the least-regulated private-school sectors in Canada. Officials inspect a school’s curriculum once a year if the institution offers high school diplomas. Beyond that, there are no rules to make sure schools like PEAC offer the education they promise. The government doesn’t check whether they are on stable financial footing or that they won’t shut down in the middle of the year and leave families with no way to recover tuition payments.
Between 2007 and 2012, at least 235 private schools shut down, “often as a result of declining enrolment or financial difficulties,” which can put students’ academic progress at risk and lead to financial losses for their families, according to the auditor general’s report.
The Ministry of Government and Consumer Services, which responds to complaints from people buying the services of private schools, has never received any complaints about PEAC.
Neil Doctorow, a former teacher with the Toronto District School Board, founded PEAC in 2005 and sold it in July 2014 to Robb Nelson, who took over as director. Last June, Doctorow filed an application for bankruptcy against Nelson, claiming in an affidavit that the new PEAC owner admitted he’s “dead broke” and still owes $924,000 for the purchase of the school.
Nelson told the Star “everything is fine” at the school, but refused to answer a list of questions about the bankruptcy application and allegations from former employees and suppliers. The dispute is laid out in rival affidavits. None of the allegations have been proven in court.
An affidavit by Nelson claims he has grounds to sue Doctorow because he failed to get the landlord’s consent for the school sale and didn’t hand over control of the charity foundation that raised as much as $200,000 a year for PEAC.
Doctorow has filed an affidavit in response, pointing to a section in the sale agreement that puts the onus for landlord consent on Nelson. He also produced emails outlining how he resigned from the PEAC charity foundation and explained to Nelson how to take it over.
In another email filed with the bankruptcy application, Doctorow claimed he had “no faith or trust” in Nelson and accused him of “destroying” the school.
“I am so, so disgusted with this entire situation and cannot tell you how angry, frustrated and disappointed I am with you,” Doctorow wrote.
A further email exchange from spring 2015 shows Doctorow demanding answers after Nelson allegedly failed to keep up with payments for the school. “I’m really not happy about this,” Doctorow wrote. Nelson replied in an email, “I know this is not right what I’m doing to you.”
Nelson, meanwhile, commissioned an accountant to go over the school’s finances in October. The accountant, Jonathan Carter, concluded in an affidavit that there are missing corporate records, transactions that aren’t on the books and two sets of financial records at the school that are vastly different and incomplete. Carter claims he believes Doctorow kept the situation hidden from Nelson when he sold the school.
“There are severe discrepancies and issues in the financial records of the PEAC school that go to the very core of its operations,” Carter states in the affidavit.
Doctorow says he will respond to those allegations at the next court date with an affidavit, but would not talk to the Star about them.
PEAC offers programs for students from Grades 4 to 12, with specialized athletic training regimens for athletes focusing on sports such as hockey, football, rugby, soccer and golf. Yearly tuition ranges from $15,500 to $27,000. About 100 students are enrolled at the school.
The Star interviewed three parents with children attending PEAC. Two said they had heard the school was in financial trouble, but that they haven’t noticed a decline in the school’s programming.
“We haven’t really seen any troubles over the last year,” said Svein Hageseth, who moved to Toronto from Norway two years ago and has two children training at the school as hockey goalies. “My kids love the teachers there, and they feel they can go to them. For us, it’s not any kind of disaster in any way.” The Star contacted numerous teachers and staff working at the school, but none responded. Four former school employees and contractors did agree to speak with the newspaper, and claimed they experienced delayed paycheques — and in some cases weren’t paid at all for some work — after Nelson took over the school in July 2014.
Natalia Ioudine was an administrator who resigned in August 2014, she said, because of $8,300 in unpaid wages and concerns with Nelson’s leadership. She told the Star that she had to use her own money to buy groceries and supplies for the school, because the PEAC credit card would be declined at the store. She added that Nelson also wouldn’t let her look at the school’s financial records, which was part of her job before he took over.
In July, the Ontario Labour Relations Board ordered PEAC to pay Ioudine’s unpaid wages, but she said she still hasn’t received any money.
“I realized something was wrong and I didn’t want to stay there,” she said of her decision to resign. “I just couldn’t actually take it anymore.”
Mitch Scott, who runs a company that makes jerseys for hockey clubs and minor league teams, told the Star that he also had trouble getting paid for a shipment of 100 uniforms for PEAC at the start of the school year. Scott claimed Nelson kept asking for more time to pay him $5,000 that was owed.
After several weeks, he went to the school with some colleagues and Nelson gave them a cheque, but it bounced when they went to the bank, Scott said. Nelson then sent his secretary with them to the bank, who spoke with the teller and got them the money, Scott said.
The next hearing date for the Nelson bankruptcy case is Jan. 6.