Preschool parents ‘devastated’ over church decision

SWAMPSCOTT – Concerned and angry parents and supporters of Play To Learn preschool are pleading for a one-year lease after learning that St. John the Evangelist Church plans to evict the preschool Aug. 31 to expand its religious-education classes.”We have so many regulations and so much criteria that we have to meet, this isn’t like just up and moving another business. Three months is almost impossible,” Play To Learn owner Lisa King said in an interview Friday.The Rev. Thomas S. Rafferty said that “this is a parish taking overdue corrective steps to fulfill its core mission, the religious instruction of its children,” in an email. He also attached the draft of a letter that will be sent to parishioners this week. The letter announces “two steps to improve and strengthen the church’s religious education program. One is the hiring of a full-time religious education director. The second is that the parish will have its own dedicated space for religious education “in response to the most frequently aired complaint about our program.”King said she was distraught and surprised when she received a May 23 letter from Rafferty that said the church wished to terminate the preschool’s lease of the church’s parish building on Humphrey Street.She replied the next day, pleading for a year-long lease in which the school would share space with the religious-education classes. Writing that “allowing us three month’s notice pretty much guarantees our closure,” King said that a childcare facility in Massachusetts must meet numerous building requirements which require “many months of applying for permits and licenses.” She also wrote that the arrangements for next year’s classes were already in place. Teachers have already been hired, she wrote, and students were already enrolled and many had paid tuition.”Granting us the opportunity to fulfill our contracts and have the students continue to attend for the 2011-2012 school year?would be a blessing,” the letter read. “If we were unable to locate, this would at least allow us the opportunity to give our families and staff adequate notice and to close with dignity, keeping the reputation of both Play To Learn and St. John’s church in good light in the community.”But Rafferty wrote on May 25 that a “shared-space” lease “compromises the quality of religious instruction.” He said in an interview on Sunday that the parish had tried sharing space with the Hathaway School, which operates out of the old St. John’s Parochial School on Blaney Street, behind the church. He said it had been problematic, as religious-education students had no place to store projects, among other complaints. (King acknowledged problems in her letter to Rafferty, but said that the preschool was a “much different program than what you have been used to”). Rafferty also said that the preschool’s hours conflicted with those of the religious education classes, which met in the afternoon.In his May 25 letter, he advised King to “direct your energies toward finding a new location” and offered help in doing so.On June 9, she informed parents of the situation.”It’s devastated all the parents,” said parent Jason Stadtlander, whose two sons attended the preschool this year. “I have nothing bad to say about (King) or Play To Learn, they’ve been great for my boys. We’re all pretty upset about this.”He said that his family’s last search for a good preschool took four-to-six months and included several schools in the area. He and King both said that most of the other preschools in the area also had mostly full enrollments for next year.King said that the fate of those enrolled in the preschool concerns – and angers – her the most. She alleged that Rafferty had “never indicated” that he intended to evict the preschool and that he had kept delaying discussions on exercising a five-year option on the lease. She also disputed Rafferty’s assertion in his May 23 letter that the lease was month-to-month. She said she agreed that the original lease c