A year ago, the financially strapped school was acquired by a new sports-oriented private high school - Utah Southvalley Community School - with promises of financial backing, upgraded facilities and expanded course offerings. Woodland Hills' putative savior was USC owner Bob Jones, a football-obsessed homebuilder many teachers and parents now accuse of destroying the school. It abandoned its home at 5858 S. 900 East on July 31, leaving behind trash and broken furniture, unpaid utility bills and bounced payroll checks.

Such an unseemly end did not surprise Jones' many critics.

Under his leadership last year, the school "went downhill fast" with rapid teacher turnover and an abandonment of the school's special-needs mission, said Nancy Murray and other parents. Teachers contacted by The Tribune confirm that the school churned through at least 50 employees.

"We really lost a whole home for our kids with special needs. They were safe, they were educated, doing well. We lost that," said parent J.R. Green, whose 16-year-old attended the school.

Jones brushes off criticism as the bitter ingratitude of those who resented the school's new direction.

"It's a situation where [teachers] were about to lose their jobs," Jones said. "It wouldn't have made it another year if I didn't show up."

The school had been in financial trouble for several years before Jones' appearance in the summer of 2007. The Utah Tax Commission almost quarterly filed tax liens against the school. It reorganized as a nonprofit in 2006 to provide some relief from its tax obligations.

While Jones promised to preserve the school's special-needs mission, his critics say he ran the school like a dictator, capriciously hiring and firing people, such as Lee Borup, a veteran history teacher he recruited to serve as principal, only to fire him the day before Christmas break, along with three associates.

According to Jones, Woodland Hills and USC are merely going their separate ways after a brief unhappy marriage.

''I gave [Woodland Hills] back to them and they said, 'We don't want it. It's not our problem,' '' he said. Jones says he is negotiating a severance agreement with Woodland Hills founders Dennis Liddell and Pat Murdoch. The founders ended their association with the school in June, however, and Jones is president of the school's board and its remaining trustees are his family members and USC associates. Neither Liddell nor Murdoch would comment.

Meanwhile, former teachers have peppered the Utah Labor Commission with grievances and expressed dismay that Jones failed to apprise them of the school's future.

"They could have laid us off in June and we could have found new work. Now those positions are filled," art teacher Sheri Sturdevant said.

But Jones claims he never hid his intentions from teachers.

"I told them what was going on. If they don't respond quick enough, that's not my fault," he said.

Sturdevant and other teachers categorically reject Jones' account, asserting that Jones assured them Woodland was on track to resume in the fall, even as their paychecks bounced. Teachers had been paid through Generations Financial, one of Jones' many companies, but the firm failed to fund their retirement plans and stopped paying their insurance premiums, resulting in the termination of their coverage without their knowledge.

A July 17 letter Generations sent teachers regarding unpaid insurance premiums informed them that they would soon be able to re-enroll for health coverage, suggesting their employment was secure. But official word of their termination came July 28 with notification they had two days to remove their belongings from the school, teachers said.

Items removed from the school include $35,000 in kitchen equipment Jones ordered from Commercial Kitchen Supply last fall. The school made two late payments, but a third and final payment bounced, according to an affidavit the supplier filed in court.

Stiffing vendors and associates is nothing new for Jones and his wife, Cynthia, court documents show. They have twice discharged debts through Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, in 1985 and again in 2000, when they listed $178,000 in unsecured debt. The couple is currently three years delinquent in paying off a debt arising from a 2005 shopping spree, according to a retailer's recent lawsuit.

Then last fall, Jones' business Front Gate Homes stopped paying subcontractors, according to numerous lawsuits filed over the past year in 3rd District Court. At least a dozen subcontractors are owed tens of thousands of dollars and have filed liens against Front Gates' various residential projects, such as Belmont Station, an upscale 105-unit townhouse development in Sandy.

This tide of red ink was rising at the very time Jones says he was pumping $3 million into Woodland Hills and USC. Jones contends there is no connection between his real-estate empire and his investment in the schools. "You've got to be kidding. I'm a homebuilder. It's not the best time for me. I'm not alone there. . . . The money for the school was my own money," he said.

bmaffly@sltrib.com