Painter's College of Beauty has closed its doors after 37 years of operation.
The closing Thursday left students of the Ogden campus without a place to complete their training. But the Roy campus was taken over immediately by a new operator, and students from Ogden with enough hours of training may finish at Roy.Owner Rita Painter said the closure was the result of recent problems with student loans and accreditation.
"We just closed it down," she said. "We are probably going to sell it or do something with it, maybe. I don't know. I just don't want to fight the system anymore."
The Ogden campus, which had about 20 students, is sitting vacant with no potential buyers or operators, Painter said.
The Roy campus, with about 17 students, was taken over by Painter's daughter, Tamara Morgan, and other business partners and is now the Professional Institute of Beauty and Barbering.
Painter said she has offered to give any students from the Ogden campus their transcripts and help them transfer to another school, or they can finish their course at Roy if they have completed 1,500 hours.
She said the new campus would not be taking any students on student loans.
Painter has blamed participation in the government guaranteed student loan program, a financial aid program administered through the schools to help low-income students, as causing her school's problems.
Painter's has been in trouble with the state Office of Higher Education Assistance Authority and the U.S. Department of Education over how student loan monies were applied to courses the school offered.
The school has been accused of having a high default rate for loan repayments, forcing the government to pay them off, and of using loan funds to pay for courses that were not accredited.
In July, the college was notified by UHEAA that it had found $796,619 in ineligible loans the school would be liable for repaying. That same month the college filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of federal bankruptcy laws.
The college showed assets of $40,674 and liabilities of $1,139,734.
Painter said she did not know how the closing would affect the state Office of Higher Education.