Nursery School at Temple Beth Am Closing Its Doors

The announced this week it will be closing its doors permanently at the end of the school year.

June 16 will be the school’s last day. 

“It was a very long, well-thought-out, difficult decision based on very low enrollment,” said Director Amy Salinger, who was hired last August to turn things around for the school.

“Everyone’s very sad,” Salinger said. “Parents feel very sad. It’s very emotional.”

Enrollment numbers had been low for several years, but were lowest this year, and Salinger expected enrollment to be even lower in the 2011-12 school year. The school has been “hurting for a long time,” Salinger said.

The nursery school was founded in 1964 and, while housed in Temple Beth Am, is independent of the temple. At one time, enrollment was high enough to have two learning tracks, one secular and one Judaic. This year, enrollment was so low that only the Judaic track was offered.

“This year, when I became the director and the enrollment was very low, one of my biggest priorities was to recruit families. I was very confident I could do that,” Salinger said.

Her efforts included enhancing communication with parents, creating a new brochure, and updating the school’s website. She also focused on enrichment programming that was free to the school, bringing in an educator from Garden in the Woods to talk about nature, a representative from Whole Foods to talk about nutrition, a children’s librarian, a police officer, firefighters, and more.

“It was an amazing, positive year in terms of the education piece, the communication piece. If we had another year, maybe,” Salinger said, trailing off.

She pointed to the changing demographics of the town, the poor economy, and the residential location of the school as possible downfalls. Also, she said, few families have a parent at home with the children these days. In dual-earner families, parents aren’t looking for traditional preschool programs.

“Given where we are in this day and age, the economic climate is very different. There is more demand for longer hours and more daycare,” Salinger said. “We’re not a daycare center. We did offer late afternoon care, but our families didn’t really use it.”

The Nursery School at Temple Beth Am enrolled students from age 2-5, but Salinger noted very few at-home parents would send their 2-year-olds to preschool. And, in dual-earner families, those 2-year-olds would already be settled in daycare and unlikely to switch programs.

Families of existing students have not had trouble finding slots in other Framingham preschools for next year, since many programs are facing similar struggles with low enrollment.

“Some of the parents knew the writing was on the wall, so they had backup plans,” Salinger said.