Copyright The Philadelphia Inquirer
Amid departures of both cadets and faculty, Valley Forge Military Academy will temporarily cease operating as a boarding school and pivot to virtual instruction between Thanksgiving and the New Year, raising questions about whether the school can finish the academic year before it is to close for good in 2026 on the historic Main Line campus. On Oct. 20, head of school Aaron Barkley told parents the virtual hiatus came at the request of parents, due to the volume of students who wanted to stay home between the holidays. The school plans to welcome back the academy’s roughly 80 cadets in January to complete the 2025-26 academic year in person. Yet school leaders — who have been criticized for their opaque communication and financial mismanagement in the lead-up to the academy’s closure — did not state definitively that the school would resume operations in January. “Our intent remains to complete the current school year,” Jeff Jubelirer, a spokesperson for the VFMA Foundation, said in a statement Monday. “We believe that doing so is in the best interest of our students and faculty. That said, it will take a collective effort from our staff, faculty, and parents to make that possible.” The switch to online classes follows the recent departure of the school’s lead tactical officer and other supervisors tasked with watching cadets overnight, according to parents familiar with the situation and emails shared with The Inquirer. Those roles are critical at a school that has been hit by allegations of hazing, assault, and sexual abuse. Parents said the school lost nearly all of its TAC officers, who provide training and discipline, within the last month. Faculty members have been asked to stay overnight to look after the cadets. “I absolutely love these boys and being here but I can no longer sustain this workload,” one TAC officer wrote to parents following his resignation, in an email shown to The Inquirer. “I just hope I was able to provide … guidance and mentorship to your son.” » READ MORE: How Valley Forge Military Academy fell apart nearly a century after its founding The nearly century-old school, known as “The Forge,” abruptly announced the closure of the academy in September after what officials described as unsustainable enrollment declines. The organization had earlier spun off the academy as a separate organization from the VFMA Foundation, which continues to operate a two-year college program on the same campus. The school had been accused of mismanagement amid a brewing financial crisis, including the construction of a $1.7 million residence for academy president Col. Stuart B. Helgeson in 2023. It has also paid costly legal settlements linked to the allegations of cadet abuse. Faced with an increasingly uncertain future, some parents opted to withdraw their children from the academy in recent weeks. The school declined to confirm how many cadets have withdrawn since last month or to say how many parents have requested refunds on tuition. A recent Inquirer report detailed how VFMA leadership knew as recently as July that the school could not financially survive another year. Yet by the time the news became public in September, many parents had already made down payments on the nearly $50,000 annual tuition. School leaders had for months been quietly discussing a plan with a local business consultant to shutter the beleaguered academy and convert it to a charter school, triggering further outcry from parent and alumni groups. Barkley, the head of school at the academy, told parents the forthcoming virtual hiatus would “maintain academic continuity while giving our cadets a slightly more relaxed structure as we head into the winter break.” In his statement, Jubelirer said VFMA anticipated “some level of attrition” this year following the September announcement. Providing a safe environment for the cadets, he said, remains a priority. “If at any point we determine that we cannot do so adequately,” he said, “we will re-evaluate the situation.”
