In early May Walker Chapel UCC preschool announced a “pause” in their preschool to take effect this spring at the end of the school year due to declining enrollment. The preschool has been in operation for 50 years. 

Suzanne Romness, the current director of the preschool says, “They call it a ‘pause’ but it’s really a closure.  Even if they were to reopen the preschool again, it wouldn’t be the same.  They haven’t asked any of the teachers to stay. This has been a neighborhood institution for many years, and no one is happy about it, the parents or the teachers.”

She continues, “I’m heartbroken. This has been such a big part of my life. And they are putting six people out of a job.” Before becoming director of the preschool, Romness had been a teacher at the preschool since 2013 and still teaches the two-year-old class in addition to being the director. Her son attended the preschool. “He’s now 20.”

Hudson demonstrates the clapping song in the pre-K class at Walker Chapel Preschool 

 

Romness says she first learned about the action on Thursday, May 8 when the pastor and church leadership informed her about the decision. “I had just had a meeting with the pastor on Monday about alternatives to keep the pre-school open so I was totally shocked.”

Pastor Teer Hardy says he was shocked and disappointed, too. “The Walker Chapel preschool is a ministry of the church. That’s how it started 50 years ago.” But he explains, “The church doesn’t exist for itself. The goal at the end of the day is how to care for the community.”

He says, “The decision to pause the preschool was made carefully and thoughtfully by the church leadership. The preschool didn’t have the enrollment to sustain themselves next year. They weren’t going to break even.” Even though the preschool is independent and not associated with the church’s religious affiliation, it is considered by the church to be part of their mission, and therefore the church board controls the decision on whether the preschool continues. 

Romness says, “It’s been very difficult since Covid, and we have had a rough year but that doesn’t mean it will always be the same every year. We could have had a chance to make it work.”

Pat McGeehan, the previous director of the preschool for 40 years says, “The preschool started as a small operation with two one-day classes a week, one for the one-year-olds and one for the two-year-olds. It was really a “mother’s day out” where the parent could take the morning to go to the dentist or just have a free morning for herself.

“It was really so the kids could have fun.” 

There was a time when there were lots of fun field trips, and for a while the preschool was a coop. As time went on there was an ebb and flow as the needs changed, and  the pre-school added more days and more classes for 3 and 4-year-olds. And they started to get more structured when parents wanted to make it more like a preschool with some academics. Now they have three classes five days a week with small classes of eight children and two teachers for each class.

McGeehan says it has been a neighborhood institution. “It was a comfortable place to be. Everyone got along. Years after the fact I go to church or the grocery store and someone says, ‘you taught my kid; I have the pictures to prove it.’ Or ‘remember so and so?’”

Ruth Haubert, the preschool bookkeeper for over 40 years, says she had three kids and two grandkids who went to Walker Chapel preschool.  “When my grandkids drive by they still say ‘that’s my school.’ There was continuity over the years. My grandkids would bring home a handprint, and I would say ‘that’s just like the one your dad did.’”

Hardy says the plan is to pause and to discern what will serve the community better. He said the decision to pause the preschool was announced in May to give the families time to find an alternative for their children in the fall. “We met with Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church to assure that they had space in their Mt. Olivet Preschool for the Walker Chapel families if they chose to move their children there.

“The need for child care is there so the question is how to adapt. Now more parents work full time and want a full day program. We are trying to serve and will be reaching out during the next year to the community to get their input on what would best meet their needs.”

In the meantime, Romness says she knows that the parents, children and teachers would say what best meets their needs is to keep things just the way they are.