The former head of a Detroit private school spoke out Thursday about the academy’s abrupt closure in September.
Mahmoud Hazime, once director of the shut-down American Muslim Academy, said he had to close the school after a last ditch effort to secure a large donation to save it fell through.
“I was hoping to the last minute that somehow, some way, something was going to come up, but it didn’t,” Hazime said at his Dearborn Heights home Thursday.
School officials sent a letter home to parents on Sept. 28, three weeks into the school year, announcing the school’s permanent closure.
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American Muslim Academy, on Ohio Street in west Detroit, closed its doors last month three weeks into the school year. The school’s former director Mahmoud Hazime said he exhausted every fundraising avenue, spent thousands of his own money and borrowed from family members trying to keep the school open, until he could no longer keep the lights on. PHOTOS: Khalil AlHajal/TAAN |
“I have given this school everything,” he said. “That school is like one of my kids… Psychologically, I was not ready to talk to people, and if I talked to people, I probably would have said the wrong thing. How can I answer people? I said ‘let me cool down, first. Let me work on myself before I work on people.’ That’s the reason I didn’t respond. I didn’t run away… I didn’t do nothing wrong.”
Suspicions arose among some parents over where their tuition money went; some even speculated that Hazime had fled the country.
Hazime insists that every penny he received went into trying to keep the school open up until the very end.
“The money I received, it went to payments that I’m behind on,” he said.
Provided documentation from Chase Bank that showed he made payments of $4,143.86 to Detroit Water and Sewerage on Sept. 9, and payments of $733.48 and $509.27 to office supply companies Quill and Office Depot, respectively, both on Sept. 14.
Hazime said that after receiving a notice from Detroit Edison on Sept. 23 that the building’s power would be cut off because of non-payment, he had school officials notify students and parents that Wednesday that the school would close temporarily because of electrical problems. He said he hoped to hear from a major out-of-state donor by the following Monday.
“When he didn’t answer me, I said ‘that’s it,'” Hazime said.
The school’s financial statements indicate that the school lost $280,000 in 2006, its first year of operation. It lost $404,847 in 2007 according to forms from that year, and lost about $107,000 in 2009, according to Hazime.
He said funds from outside donors kept the school going for the first three years, but that this year, as a result of the economy, a dramatic drop in enrollment and an inability to pay tuition among many families sealed the school’s fate.
A fundraiser held in January yielded about $21,000, according to records, but Hazime said that amount was a drop in the bucket against the mounting debt.
He said several family members donated tens of thousands to help, and that many of the school’s teachers agreed not to be paid for several months. Hazime hopes to be able to pay about $40,000 owed to teachers after the school is liquidated.
He said he’s filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy, owing, between his own personal debt — exacerbated by loans he showed went to funding the school — and the school’s total debt, $1,789,529.
Despite the debt and the backlash from parents, Hazime said he does not regret opening the school.
“It was for a good cause. Not one penny went in the wrong way,” he said. …When I build my credit, the very first thing I’m going to do is start a new school… For those who paid tuition… If tomorrow opens up for me, the very first thing I will do is go down the list and start pay people their money back. Right now, it’s time for healing and rebuilding.”
Parents and former teachers of American Muslim Academy students could not be reached for comment by press time Thursday night.
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