Nearly All Employees Furloughed at Lon Morris

JACKSONVILLE – Nearly all employment at Lon Morris College has been furloughed. An e-mail sent to employees by Chief Restructuring Officer Dawn Ragan says “all employment by the College is hereby terminated…subject to confirmation where appropriate, excluding a minimal core group.” While the email says the employees were terminated, Jack Nelson, vice president of the Lon Morris College board of trustees, tells the Jacksonville Daily Progress that they were furloughed. Miles McCall also tendered his resignation as college president. Trustee Tim McRae says McCall was told negotiating with creditors would be easier if McCall stepped down.

The school has experienced financial problems and has missed its last three payrolls. In the e-mail, obtained by our news partner KETK, Ragan tells employees the due to insufficient cash flow, the college cannot continue to employ them.

The e-mail continues, “Moving forward, the College and the restructuring professionals are working together with lenders and various stakeholders to facilitate short term aid which would provide extremely limited funding for a period of approximately 30 days. During that time frame the professionals are exploring and investigating multiple options that could permit the College to continue to operate on a go forward basis in some form.

“At the present time, in the absence of information to the contrary, we are assuming there will indeed be a Fall semester which we will gear up for once the 30 day assessment has been completed and alternatives have been analyzed. Accordingly, it is anticipated in the third week of June we will be able to provide an update relative to the future of the College and the Fall semester.”