Site of The Academy for sale (re New Direction)
According to the suit, The Academy in 1989 moved to Maryville after being based for nearly 19 years in Pennsylvania, where it was known as The New Direction Inc. The move resulted from “bad management, loss of money” and a “number of allegations against them for cheating people out of money.”
Site of The Academy for sale: $2.2 million Maryville program wants to extend its lease but it faces money problems, low enrollment.
The former Mount Alverno convent – leased the last two years by an unusual scholarship program called The Academy – is for sale to anyone with $2.2 million.
Yet officials at The Academy headquarters in the hilltop convent near Maryville, Mo., wouldn’t discuss what the possible sale means for their program. They denied that the property was even on the market.
“That’s not us,” said David Hemmerling, The Academy’s founder, when asked about a recent ad in The Wall Street Journal seeking buyers for the sprawling, estatelike complex in northwest Missouri.
The convent’s owners, however, confirmed it had been for sale for several years and was recently advertised in The Journal.
A spokesman for the owners, St. Mary of the Angels in St. Louis, said The Academy’s lease also was expiring.
“I don’t know what The Academy’s plans are,” said Judy Wilson.
The Kansas City Star reported in February that few students graduated from The Academy, which imposes a strict regimen of exercise and study on its students. Many dropped out, disillusioned by 18-hour days of homework and menial chores, cash fines and alleged harassment.
In an interview earlier this year, Hemmerling, 47, said The Academy’s lease of the convent was to expire Saturday. He said that by then, his financially ailing scholarship program aimed to raise $500,000 for expenses.
A real estate agent handling the sale of the property said Friday that The Academy was trying to extend its lease.
According to Hemmerling, The Academy once provided scholarships for as many as 16 students at a time.
But officials at nearby Northwest Missouri State University, where Academy students attend classes, said only four Academy students had enrolled for the fall semester, which began Aug. 19.
Several Academy students left the program last year after Hemmerling, they said, indicated financial troubles were forcing it to close. But the program remained open.
A student and his father later sued the Communications Workers of America to recover money the family allegedly lost after becoming involved with The Academy. L.M. Moody, a CWA member from Anderson, S.C., and his son, David, contend that the union promoted the scholarship program without adequately investigating it.
According to the suit, The Academy in 1989 moved to Maryville after being based for nearly 19 years in Pennsylvania, where it was known as The New Direction Inc. The move resulted from “bad management, loss of money” and a “number of allegations against them for cheating people out of money.”
The CWA union has declined comment on the lawsuit, which was filed in May. Rodney Brown, the Moodys’ attorney, said last week the suit was pending.
Staff writer Greg Kuhl contributed to this article.
Site of The Academy for sale: $2.2 million Maryville program wants to extend its lease but it faces money problems, low enrollment.
Bill Dalton
1 September 1991
The Kansas City Star
