The preschool at historic Smith Playground abruptly closed this week, stranding families and raising questions

Gina Dukes knew what she wanted in a preschool for her daughter: diversity, lots of outdoor play, a curriculum rich with arts and movement.

She was thrilled to find the Smith Urban Nature Preschool, which checked all the boxes. The school, which opened in September, was located at the historic Smith Memorial Playground & Playhouse in Fairmount Park. She enrolled her daughter as soon as she turned 3.

But now, Dukes and other Philadelphia families are reeling: Officials abruptly closed SUN Preschool on Monday, citing staffing and financial issues.

“We’re all left scrambling,” said Dukes, a Philadelphia teacher. “We’re all sad. Our children’s lives, routines are all disrupted.”

Significant planning and fundraising went into sprucing up Smith, all with an eye toward opening an innovative, diverse-by-design, nature-based preschool based on the Reggio Emilia philosophy, which gives students some agency over what they learn, and allows children to express themselves in many different ways.

Smith sought partners with experience in the early childhood space to help get the school off the ground; it initially chose the Parent Infant Center, a well-respected, West Philadelphia-based early childhood center, to help, but that partnership ultimately ended and Smith decided to go it alone.

Initial plans were to serve about 40 students ages 3, 4 and 5 in two classrooms in a full-day, full-year, progressive program that made space for all, including families in the neighborhoods surrounding Smith. Officials hoped SUN might eventually be a city pre-kindergarten site and open in 2022, but that was pushed back by the pandemic.

About 70 families expressed interest in enrolling their children at SUN. But delays in the school’s state licensure meant it did not receive its official clearance to open until a few weeks before the first day of school, in September. Many families couldn’t wait that long, and went elsewhere.

The school finally opened with just four students. Eventually, it grew to 10 children, not all of whom attended full time. Its financial model called for 20 students.

Lianne Milton’s son was one of the first four children, enrolling in part because of a recommendation someone gave when Milton lived in Madison, Wis., about a Philadelphia urban nature school that was opening.

Milton was thrilled with the educational philosophy and physical space, and chose to move to Brewerytown in part because of its proximity to SUN. She knew the school was new and worried about possible teacher churn, an issue in early childhood education generally, but felt confident about her choice overall.

Their son was happy with the small, close-knit school, and so were Milton and her husband. But in late December, with a day’s notice from the board, the director resigned — “the first red flag,” Milton said. “We knew they were looking for a director; we knew the finances were iffy” with such a small school, financed both by tuition and subsidies.

Dukes said by the time her daughter enrolled in SUN in January, communications between the administration and the teachers was spotty, but she decided to give the school a shot anyway.

But by Friday, when staff told parents the school was closing an hour early, it became clear that there were gaps between the board’s philosophy and the teachers’, parents said, and the issues were potentially serious.

Soon after the Friday early closure, parents got a message: The staff had called a meeting for Saturday. Teachers talked about problems at the school and said one had been suspended for reasons that are not clear, and the other called out in protest.

On Sunday, parents learned the school would be closed Monday. Eventually, the news came in a Monday night meeting: SUN was closing.

Board president Marc Mannella said the closure would last at least for the remainder of the term.

“This decision was not one that we came to easily, and we share it today with heavy hearts, knowing the significant impact that this decision will likely have on all of you, and knowing how many people care about our school and will be saddened to see it close,” Mannella read from an email that soon went out to families.

“In recent days, it became clear that our current financial situation is not sustainable for anyone, and it is unfair to parents to go day to day without knowing whether we will or we will not be able to open.” the email continued. ”Hence the difficult conclusion to close the school effective immediately.”

Families were stunned, Dukes and Milton said.

“We’re all left scrambling,” Dukes said. “I feel like these administrators, the board members, they played with our children’s lives. They didn’t have the respect or decency to give us proper communication or warning.”

Mannella, who was the founding chief executive of the KIPP Philadelphia charter network, said in an interview that the realities of running a tiny school caught up with SUN, whose board and operations are separate from Smith Memorial Playground’s.

At first, the board had hoped to stay open for a few more weeks, but there was “a rash of staff absences, and now we can’t even open the school” because it couldn’t meet state-mandated staff-to-student ratios.

“We realize that we were better serving our families to start to focus our energy on identifying places that they could reliably send their children,” Mannella said. “Our hearts are broken. We’re terribly sorry that we weren’t able to maintain operations.”

In hindsight, Mannella said, the board was “perhaps too aggressively focusing on recruiting more students” for too long instead of “rightsizing the budget.”

Mannella said it wasn’t clear whether the school might reopen in the future.

But, he said, “it’s a beautiful space — there needs to be a preschool there. I firmly believe that there will be a preschool there.” When SUN or another school opens, and whether it operates independently or another organization runs it, remains up in the air.

In some ways, the SUN closure feels like the perfect storm, parents said: the intersection of teaching shortages that stretch from early childhood to K-12, pandemic fallout, bureaucratic and board-staff issues, and poor communication.

For now, parents are trying to pick up the pieces — many spent Tuesday frantically calling other centers to find placement for their children. (Mannella said a few have already secured spots elsewhere.)

A SUN parents’ group chat is still abuzz, some members said.

“We had this beautiful thing, and this is all such a shock,” said Milton. “Everyone has a million questions.”