Corinthian Ceases All Operations

(RTTNews) - Corinthian Colleges Inc (COCO) on Sunday said it has ceased substantially all operations and discontinued instruction at its remaining 28 ground campuses.

The company said it is working with other schools to provide continuing educational opportunities for its about 16,000 students. Corinthian said those efforts depend to a great degree on cooperation with partnering institutions and regulatory authorities.

Campuses closed include Corinthian's 13 remaining Everest and WyoTech campuses in California, Everest College Phoenix and Everest Online Tempe in Arizona, the Everest Institute in New York, and 150-year-old Heald College—including its 10 locations in California, one in Hawaii and one in Oregon.

Since signing an operating agreement with the U.S. Department of Education in July 2014, the company has been focused on completing the orderly sale or wind-down of all of its schools.

In November 2014, the company announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell 56 Everest and WyoTech campuses to Zenith Education Group Inc, a subsidiary of ECMC Group.

As part of that sale, Zenith also agreed to conclude the teach-out process at 12 additional schools that were being closed. That transaction was completed in February of this year for all but three locations, the Everest College Phoenix campuses in Phoenix and Mesa, AZ, and Everest Institute in Rochester, NY.

Zenith has recently advised Corinthian that it will not consummate the purchase of Everest College Phoenix, and the closing conditions have not been satisfied for Everest Institute Rochester.

In parallel, the company had been in advanced negotiations with several parties to both sell the 150-year-old Heald College and to arrange for teach-out partners to allow its Everest College and WyoTech students in California to continue their education. The company said these efforts were unsuccessful largely as a result of federal and state regulators seeking to impose financial penalties and conditions on buyers and teach-out partners.