CONYERS, Ga. — Students are struggling to understand why their beauty school is suddenly shutting down after nearly 40 years in business, forcing them to finish their education elsewhere.
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The Georgia Career Institute in Conyers gave notice to students and staff this week that the school will be closing next week, with the final day of classes Oct.1. The school’s statement, posted on its website, says GCI received a letter on Sept. 16 from the Council on Occupational Education.
The agency, which evaluates standards for career and technical schools, informed GCI that it’s dropping the school’s accreditation. The school statement says the council made its decision because GCI failed to meet accreditation standards “with respect to financial resources.”
The statement goes on to say that GCI had the opportunity to appeal the decision no later than Oct. 6, but given the financial requirements for an appeal and the continued operations of the school, it determined the school “is unable to pursue an appeal and must proceed with closure.”
Channel 2’s Bryan Mims went inside the school to get a comment from school management about the financial situation, but the chief operating officer said she would not be saying anything beyond what’s written in the statement.
“Although this is not the outcome we hoped for, our commitment to our students remains our highest priority,” the statement read. “Our focus now is to make the closure and transfer process as organized and supportive as possible.”
The school has teach-out arrangements with three other cosmetology schools in metro Atlanta, allowing students to transfer all the credit hours at GCI and not pay additional tuition.
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India Harden enrolled in April for nail care training, paying $16,000 in tuition. She’s surprised to learn that the school could not meet financial requirements.
“Where is the money? Why can’t y’all tell us where the money is going? And we’re spending all this money. It doesn’t make sense,” she said.
Brittanica Goodrum, who also enrolled in April, said the school notified students in June that it might lose its accreditation, but that it was still admitting new students this month.
“So why are y’all still accepting people if you know all along that this was going on?” she said. “That’s what I don’t understand.”
While GCI has teach-out arrangements with other schools, Goodrum said she’ll have an even longer commute.
“And I’m scrambling,” she said. “I already stay an hour away. If I go up there, it’s gonna be an hour and a half away.”
The institute said it will not restrict a student’s ability to transfer to another school because of an outstanding balance and will not pursue collection efforts. “While we cannot change the circumstances that have brought us to this point, we can remain committed to completing this process responsibly and doing everything within our ability to support each student through this transition.”
Sierra Grundy, who paid $21,000 in tuition for master cosmetology instruction, said leadership and staff have been supportive since announcing the closure Tuesday morning.
“I was upset, but the support that we’ve been getting has actually been really helpful,” she said. “The teachers have been very uplifting, the staff has been very uplifting, saying don’t quit, you guys got it.”
Still, Bethany Elise, who’s finishing her training as a nail technician, said this is a hardship for everybody.
“We came here, we should be able to finish,” she said. “You shouldn’t have to worry about where to transfer to next and how to move forward. That can be a lot.”
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