Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Harlem School of Arts Could Shutter Because of Financial Mismanagement

By Test Reporter | April 9, 2010 11:49am | Updated on April 9, 2010 11:41am
Student dancers from the Harlem School  of the Arts, hold a replica of the commemorative Louis Armstrong stamp as they jump above the reflective pool at New York's Lincoln Center in 1995.
Student dancers from the Harlem School of the Arts, hold a replica of the commemorative Louis Armstrong stamp as they jump above the reflective pool at New York's Lincoln Center in 1995.
View Full Caption
AP Photo/Ed Bailey

By Olivia Scheck

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN – Despite official claims that the poor economy is to blame for shuttering the legendary Harlem School of the Arts, tax documents show extreme financial mismanagement was behind the nonprofit's current plight, the New York Times reported.

The institution, which taught 3000 children music, dance, theater and visual arts each year, shut its doors last week, announcing that it would need a $500,000 donation to continue classes through June.

Tax records document the school's path to financial ruin, as it reportedly turned a $2 million surplus into a $1 million deficit.

Tax records show the school started to sink into the red as a result of lavish salaries for top executives and growing staff rolls over the past few years. That doesn’t include a half-million dollars the school reportedly failed to pay on payroll taxes, the Times reported.

Officials confirmed to the Times that they fired former president Kakuna Kerina last year because she hid the true extent of the fiscal problems from the board. Kakuna's salary was $161,539 a year, nearly double her predecessor, the paper said.

Kerina denied the allegations to the Times.

Although school officials said last week that they would announce plans for the school's future on April 10th, they have delayed the announcement for another two weeks, according to the Times.