At Bankrupt NYC Private School, a Bold Expansion Plan Went Awry

In the hyper-competitive landscape of New York City’s private schools, Manhattan Country School bore all the hallmarks of success.

It boasted a valuable campus on a leafy Upper West Side block and a farm in the Catskills where generations of students have learned how to milk cows, weave and plant squash and beans. It also had a dedicated community of families and alumni dating to the progressive institution’s founding in 1966 at the peak of the civil rights era.

But behind the brick facade of its six-story main building on West 85th Street, where roughly 250 kids from kindergarten through eighth grade ...