still on scene this hour, mopping up hot, hot spots. >> An abrupt ending to the school year for students at a private school in Newark, the school announced today. It has filed for bankruptcy and will be shutting down immediately. Despite already collecting tuition for next year. KTVU is Alice Wertz joins us live from Newark. Alex. Alice a lot of shock for parents and students tonight. >> That's right. Greg. We're here in front of New Horizon School. It's designed it's a private school. It's for junior kindergarten through eighth grade. The semester was supposed to go another three weeks, but that came to an abrupt end with an email that was sent to staff, families, instructors and students. >> We were all shocked. You know, both of my kids were crying. All the parents, everybody was crying and really upset about this. >> Parent Sheena Verma has two students here at New Horizons. She said it was an email sent Wednesday night from the principal. That's how she learned that the school is bankrupt and Friday would be its last day. >> We were shocked about two months ago, we abruptly found out that some teachers were not being paid, we found out that like the lease had not been paid, the principal, Victor Dawson, hasn't been on site since March 27th and none of the bills have been paid, including payroll. >> But he's collected tuition for next year. >> About 20 parents prepaid about $14,000 each. >> Angela Eggleston has been involved with New Horizons since the 90s. >> It has been a very long semester as vice principal. >> She's tried to keep spirits up, but it's been very challenging when information was brought to light about building lease not being current, about this staff not being paid, we did lose some students. Yeah we probably lost about 20, 22 students. So we were probably right now we were down to like 78. >> Hadi Rafi has taught math and science to middle schoolers here for the last year. >> So February, March, April, May. So it'll be a total of almost eight eight checks. He hasn't been paid in four months, but like some other teachers, he keeps showing up. We're supposed to get paid today, basically all of checks. But I checked my account. Nothing's there. >> Miss Angie says the students are struggling. >> Our students are resilient, but that doesn't mean they aren't hurting, I hear from parents that they're having anxiety. They're they're crying at night. They don't understand because it's just so different than what they had experienced. Their full time here. We're a small community. >> And the, Mr. Dawson, Victor Dawson is the owner and principal. We tried to reach out to him but didn't hear back. As for the staff and the teachers, there is a complaint filed with the Department of Labor in regards to the wages that haven't been paid. Some families are trying to figure out still where their students are going to go in the fall. I'm in Newark
