DAYTON — Hundreds of Miami Valley cosmetology students learned Tuesday that their school has closed for good, after the owner of the Creative Images Institute of Cosmetology said he is out of money and would need almost $2 million to keep it going, WHIO News Center 7 reported. The school locked its doors Tuesday, and the Ohio State Cosmetology and Barber Board said it was one of two locations that went out of business, according to WHIO.
News Center 7 reported hearing from more than a dozen students on Tuesday, many of them devastated and confused — especially those who were days or months from graduation. “Heartbroken, like my heart got ripped out from under me,” student Makayla Kenley told WHIO News Center 7. “My feelings are everywhere. I’m feeling a bit of everything,” Johna Webb told WHIO, and Paula Woodward told WHIO, “I feel bad; somebody’s supposed to graduate on Thursday.”
President and CEO Charles Gross told WHIO News Center 7 that the school’s money problems started in 2020, when COVID hit. Last month, he said, his bank told him it would no longer loan him any more money, and on Monday he decided he had no choice but to close. “If I brought in $1.7 million, it would change the ratio; everything would go away,” Gross told WHIO.
Students raised concerns about whether Gross misused money, something he denied in his comments to WHIO. Students were also angry that they did not get more warning. “When you tell a student something may happen, could happen, then you have the confusion of what’s going on,” Gross told WHIO, adding that he did not get a final answer until 4 o’clock Monday. “If this could be changed in any way, shape, or form, I would have done it,” he told WHIO.
The impact reaches students who had not even started. One woman told WHIO the school accepted her just last week, and Tuesday’s text message announcing the closure was heartbreaking. Others now face a harder question: what happens to the training hours they have already earned toward their state licenses.
Gross told WHIO that students seeking refunds on classes will have to go through the state, and that students who want to finish accredited coursework will have to go to Columbus or Cincinnati. Many students told WHIO that is not realistic for them because of family responsibilities and other work commitments.
What happens next runs through the Ohio State Cosmetology and Barber Board, which oversees cosmetology schools and student records in Ohio. Displaced students typically need the board’s help confirming their earned hours and finding a school that will accept them — and for the student who was supposed to graduate Thursday, that help cannot come soon enough.