Prep school in St. Paul not paying wages, bills

A small, private boarding school in St. Paul has stopped paying its staff, has not been paying the mortgage on its building and was more than $30,000 behind in payments to the company that provides food for the school.

Ambassador Preparatory is a school that serves mostly international students in St. Paul's Cathedral Hill neighborhood. It is owned by Erica Roy-Nyline, a licensed teacher.

According to several teachers, the school has been paying its teachers sporadically since last spring.

"The only thing that is keeping it going is the goodwill of the teachers," said teacher Arthur Bogdanove, who has been teaching there since the school year started.

Roy-Nyline did not return phone calls seeking comment.

According to Bogdanove, the school has four teachers and a principal to educate its 24 students, who are mostly from South Korea.

The school, formerly known as the International Academy of Minnesota, says on its website that it focuses on "setting our students on a path towards becoming top scholars, leaders, professionals and citizens of the world."

Last summer, the school was also sued by its food provider -- New Horizon Foods -- for failing to pay invoices for four months starting in February. A Ramsey County District judge awarded New Horizon $33,732 in October.

Now, Bogdanove said, the school has no cook and is ordering pizza and other food from outside, and sometimes the director will cook.

Jeff Hempel was hired this fall to do maintenance and grounds-keeping, and he left after a month of not getting paid. He now estimates that the school owes him more than $2,000.

"Week after week she looked me in the face and told me she was going to pay me the next week," Hempel said. "She said they were having problems financially and that the money was going to come through. I just can't believe the audacity."

At the end of November, a Ramsey County District judge ruled that Roy-Nyline and Craig Roy-Nyline owe $177,000 to Bremer Bank, because they have not been paying the mortgage on one of the buildings at the school.

Bogdanove said that Roy-Nyline held a meeting with staff on Thursday to talk about the fact that staff wasn't getting paid. She said the school hasn't been successful enough in its recruiting efforts, and detailed what it planned to do to turn things around, Bogdanove said.

The teachers are considering filing a joint complaint with the state Department of Labor and Industry.