DeWinton pre-school to close in June

The DeWinton pre-school will close at the end of the school year in mid-June.

Shelby Claiter is among a group of parents who were shocked when they were informed March 1 that it would be closing after 35 years.

The board of the DeWinton Community Association held a meeting with the parents and then two moms put a proposal together and directed it to the board with ways they said it could be kept open.

"Give us a year, try to give us that time so we can try to find a way to save the pre-school, whether that's hiring an administrator, trying to find more volunteers, trying to find a separate entity to come in and take over the pre-school," she says.

"The main problem was the DCA (DeWinton Community Association) just didn't want to be affiliated with the pre-school anymore, it is a 100 per cent volunteer base, other than the teachers, so they were saying it's a lot of work for the volunteers, all these things that we weren't made aware of."

After presenting their proposal to the board, she says they were all devastated when they received an email a couple days later saying the pre-school was still going to close.

"For this coming school year, in September, there was a waiting list for the four-year-old class. There were still some vacancies for the other classes but because our registration is so early in the year it's not unheard of that we have some vacancies and they fill up come March, April."

Claiter says the pre-school is really going to be missed.

"It was such an affordable school, the teachers were unbelievable, they are the best and the DCA weren't willing to give us a year to give us a chance to do something with it. 

It was a beautiful location, this place has been around for obviously years, the trees are beautiful, there's a playground, there's a gym, it's a location that you are not going to be able to find that brings you close to within your community of friends, you're not going to be able to find anything like it."

Parents who'd already registered their children for the fall have been refunded their money.