| To: | Current and Former Students of The John Winsolow Institute, (a/k/a Joaldo, Inc.) at 1150 Hancock Street, Quincy, MA 02169 |
| Date: | March 1, 2010 |
| Re: | School Closure |
On June 17, 2009, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (Department) notified the above school of the expiration of its business school license and ordered the school to cease and desist any and all operations. Since that time, the Department has received several complaints that indicate that the school's owners, Elizabeth Hunter Vasco and John D. Vasco, may have continued to provide instruction, solicit enrollments, and accept monies from students despite not having a license to operate a private business school within the Commonwealth.
To date, the school has failed to provide the Department with a list of students who were attending the school at the time of its closure. Additionally, the school has not provided a repository of student records as required by 603 CMR 3.12(3).
The Department is investigating this matter and will post an updated bulletin on this website on or before Friday, March 19th advising students how to file claims for restitution of any unused tuition and the status of students' records. Please do not file claims at this time.
In the meantime, if you paid the school for coursework that you did not receive, please try the following options:
| If you have a student loan, | Contact your lender immediately (contact information should be on your loan documents) to inform them of the school's closure and that you wish to request a "non-interest bearing administrative forbearance" of your loan until such time as your claim with the school is settled. This means that the loan company will suspend accrual of any interest and any loan payments until your claim has been settled. Please note that you may have to periodically renew this request until your claim is settled. If the lender wants proof of the school's closure, please download this bulletin and send it to them. |
| If you paid by check, | If your check has not already been cashed by the school, contact your bank to stop payment on the check. If the check has been cashed, please obtain a copy, which will be useful when filing a claim. |
| If you paid by credit card, | Contact your credit card company immediately in writing. Please see the Federal Trade Commission's website at: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre16.shtm for specific instructions and a sample letter for your convenience. It would be wise to also include with your letter a copy of your enrollment agreement, also known as a personal service contract, as evidence of the contract between you and the school; and, a copy of this bulletin as verification of the school's closure and subsequent breach of contract. If you paid by credit card, following the FTC's instructions are your best recourse. |
| If you are attending school under M.G.L. 151A section 30 unemployment law and 430 CMR 9.0, | You should contact the Division of Unemployment Assistance at 617-626-5375 to notify them of this disruption in educational services. They will work with you to make the necessary adjustments to your claim. |
| If you are attending school with financing from your local career center, | Please contact the career center and apprise them of these bulletins. |
While the Department is investigating this matter, we greatly appreciate your help in keeping the volume of phone calls we receive to a minimum by checking these bulletins. We thank you for your patience in this matter.