Is your deposit held in a separate trust account or will it be lost if the school goes t*ts up? If its not in a trust account why not? What is the deposit for anyway? I could understand keeping a bit of cash on account to stay in the black but what purpose does a deposit serve towards hour building? There are far to many schools using advance monies and deposits to pay the day to day running costs. Hence when the cash stops coming in the door things go pear shaped pretty quick.
I would say counting on "losing" your deposit is probably a wise move.