After weeks of silence that has infuriated former students and employees, Codeup’s leadership has posted a letter to its website.
Signed by “The Codeup team,” the 350-word letter posted Thursday described the changing landscape and hardships that led to its Dec. 28 closure.
“With hiring freezes in the job market, the funding landscape shifting in 2023, specifically with local and VET TEC funding programs, combined with our inability to retain essential teaching resources in December, Codeup could no longer deliver on its mission,” the letter stated.
VET TEC, a federal veterans’ benefit program, required schools which did not place its graduates into jobs within six months to return the full tuition to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The letter went on to say that, thanks to help from the school’s “regulatory, government and institutional partners,” many students “have successfully transferred to quality programs to complete their studies and have obtained or will pursue refunds.”
The Texas Workforce Commission, which regulates career training schools, was unable to immediately say how many students had received refunds.
At the time of closure, 112 students were enrolled, according to TWC documents obtained via an open records request. Of those, 91 had their tuition covered by VA benefits. Of the remaining students, most took out loans ranging from $11,000 to $30,000 to pay for their training.
That doesn’t include at least one cohort of students who were close to finishing their programs and got their certificates of completion. These students did not receive any job placement services, but also appear to be ineligible for any type of refund.
Codeup’s leadership and owners, Michael Girdley, Jason Straughan (who stepped down as CEO on Dec. 8) and Chris Turner have declined to speak to the media since layoffs were first reported in October.
Among the documents released by the TWC is an email from Sarah Mellor, a longtime Codeup executive, telling a TWC employee not to give a reporter Codeup employees’ contact information. “All press can be directed to info@codeup.edu,” she wrote.
Inquiries to that email address and others have gone unanswered.
