Beauty academy closes doors

Carson City Beauty Academy closed this month, Sandra J. Escover of the beauticians’ school at 1851 S. Roop St. confirmed Thursday.

Escover, the academy’s president and director, said the 24-year-old firm closed because accreditation was lost in the spring and the U.S. Department of Education cut off funding for students as a result. She said she had kept the academy going with her own savings while awaiting funds, but it became clear by mid-year she would have to close.

“I’ve always had a good, clean school,” she said, but accreditation was lost due to an auditing provision she asserted neither she nor her accountant understood. She said it involved a debt-to-profit ratio and she couldn’t meet it in recent years, apparently because she had avoided debt. “I didn’t make it for two years in a row,” she said.

The accreditation loss followed a probation notice from the National Accrediting Commission of Career Arts and Sciences. A notice of commission action from a case management team in San Francisco, which was dated Aug. 27, 2013, indicated probation was for failure to comply with the “Financial Practices Management Standard” of NACCAS.

Escover, who said her academy would have reached 25 years of service next October, indicated many of the 67 students there before the closure were continuing their schooling in Reno.

She said the closure put 13 people out of work, including her. The academy was in Suite 100 at the Roop Street location.

“I have never been late with a payment in my life,” Escover said.

She said she had “no choice but to close” because of frozen federal funds. “If they hadn’t frozen the funds,” she said, “we could have continued.”

On the firm’s website, the Beauty Academy said PELL grants, direct loans, student loans and other financial aid opportunities were available for those qualified. “Once eligible to work on the public under instructor supervision,” the website also said, “our students have a great opportunity to work with guests daily.”

Escover said she wanted to thank students, employees and clients involved with the academy over nearly a quarter century in Carson City.