Home Nonprofit & Education Education Report: Court appoints special master to oversee finances of ailing Croft School

Report: Court appoints special master to oversee finances of ailing Croft School

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PBN Staff

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03/27/2026

The Croft School — W. MARK RUSSO, who is also a permanent receiver of the Providence Place mall, has been designated “special master” for The Croft School's location on the East Side of Providence. The school also has two campuses in Boston.

PROVIDENCE – A veteran attorney has been appointed by a Rhode Island judge to oversee the finances of the cash-strapped Croft School, WPRI-TV CBS 12 reported Thursday. W. Mark Russo, who is also a permanent receiver of the Providence Place mall, has been designated “special master” for the Croft School location on the East Side

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PROVIDENCE – A veteran attorney has been appointed by a Rhode Island judge to oversee the finances of the cash-strapped Croft School, WPRI-TV CBS 12 reported Thursday. W. Mark Russo, who is also a permanent receiver of the Providence Place mall, has been designated “special master” for the Croft School location on the East Side of Providence. The Croft School, with campuses on the East Side of Providence and in Boston, is facing a financial crisis and is being sued after its founder, Scott Given, was accused of forging a letter of credit and concealing $13 million in unsecured debt. On March 17, Croft School sent an email to parents explaining that the K-8 school needs $5 million to stay afloat after it was discovered that Given had allegedly kept “two sets of books” concealing the debt, according to media reports. A parental coalition known as Save What’s Special, Croft Providence has been launched to try and raise $1 million to keep the school open through the end of the academic year. As the special master, Russo is authorized to open bank accounts, as well as oversee tuition, donations and all essential disbursements, including payroll for faculty and staff, rent and food services, according to the order, WPRI-TV reported. “At this point, all I can say is that The Croft School, the Providence parents and the attorneys have a common goal of working as hard as they can to maintain status quo through the end of the school year so there is no disruption to young students and faculty at the Providence campus,” Russo told WPRI-TV. The school operates in two separate buildings along Wayland Avenue in Providence’s Wayland Square, as well as two locations in Boston. In a separate lawsuit filed in Suffolk Superior Court in Massachusetts, a Boston property owner claims Given used a forged $500,000 letter of credit from Leader Bank to secure a $12.5 million lease for a South Boston building – a former supermarket – that would have served as a new campus. The plaintiff, 1421 Washington Associates LLC, is seeking $10 million for a breach of the lease agreement and $4.3 million for building devaluation due to the community backlash, according to Axios Boston. Given is accused in the lawsuit of using the letter of credit to avoid providing a cash security deposit to 1421 Washington Associates. The lawsuit says that when Given told the landlord on Feb. 6 that the school was no longer pursuing the expansion after it was met with community resistance, Leo Cocoran, a representative of the property owner, went to Leader Bank to get the security deposit. Bank officials told Cocoran they had no record of the letter of credit in their system after they called the police, according to a previous WPRI-TV report. The Croft School’s lender immediately declared a default and seized about $1.5 million in collateral from Croft’s operating account, leaving roughly $450,000 remaining, according to the school’s message to parents, WPRI-TV previously reported. The school’s board suspended Given two days later, after learning of “serious irregularities with respect to the financial management of our school,” according to the message sent to parents. The school’s board said it can cover its payroll expenses until March 31 with an emergency capital contribution. Tuition at the school is $30,000 per year, according to the report. Its campuses in Rhode Island and Massachusetts have a combined enrollment of more than 240 kindergarten and elementary students.