Wood Creek owner says staffing forced closure

Wood Creek Academy has closed their doors for good, and the community that they built around the school is devastated. The boarding school opened in 2005 and operated for 16 year. Wood Creek Academy closed officially on September 25. “We don’t quit, and that’s why it was so hard to make the decision,” said Danice Thorne, executive director and owner of Wood Creek Academy.

The closure resulted from complications created during an investigation by Child Protective Services (CPS) into an allegation of abuse or neglect made against individual staff members at the school. The investigation could take 60 days and created a span of nearly two months where the program had to be closed as the employees facing the allegations were unable to work. The closure was due to the investigation placing the school under the minimum staffing-to-student ratio requirements. Thorne explained that it is tough for anybody to stay out of work for 60 days, especially when a person is not making that much to begin with. She said, “nobody gets into this for the money.”

The staff that were named in the investigation included two employees who work the flex-shift and one who works the night shift. During such an investigation, those named individuals could not return to work until cleared. According to Thorne, it is general policy put forth by the state that for every 16 students there needs to be one staff in the night shift and one staff for every eight students during the day. Wood Creek Academy housed 10-12 students and posted one or two employees during the night shift and more than three during the day shifts, Thorne said. However, now having lost those night staff, the school could no longer operate under the requirements. After what Thorne considered an “unclear timeline” for an investigation with no clear end and losing three staff temporarily while the investigation was being conducted, the school had to close for the course of the investigation and does not plan to reopen.

Wood Creek Academy employed 15 staff, many of whom were part-time. Harold Farrington, one of the past night shift workers, said he worked at Wood Creek Academy for 13 years and left long before the allegations. “You can’t run shorthanded for three months when you’re already shorthanded,” said Farrington. Though he was there mostly to supervise while the students slept, night-owl students would often talk with him about possible future careers and following their dreams. “We did a lot of good for those kids. I think the state is making a mistake. I hate to see it close,” he added.

Thorne spoke about the communication gap between the state and the programs. Both are supposed to be there for the students, but it does not seem to her that they are working together to give the students what they need. She explained that she is not opposed to the policy and that no program, including Wood Creek Academy, is perfect. However, Thorne did not like the secretiveness. She explained that it was not an allegation against Wood Creek, it was against this one or several individuals. She assured that there must be some way to keep the schools running in such an investigation, in order to keep helping youth that need the programs. “I don’t want to see more programs end up like this and for kids to end up in institutions because they have nowhere else to go,” added Thorne.

CPS has not returned calls from The Ledger regarding the investigation.