A local preschool that has provided child care the last six years officially closed ahead of the upcoming school year after program directors were unable to staff teaching positions.
Fern & Feather Preschool, located at Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown announced on August 8th that they would not reopen. The program was an alternative-learning school for 3 to 5-year-old local children that focused on outdoor activities, exploration, and early academics.
The school officially opened in 2019 as the result of an expansion grant from MVYouth and the success of the Felix Neck summer camp program. The camp is expected to continue without a hitch, but program representatives said running the preschool was no longer tenable because they could not find teachers, even after years of trying.
“Despite offering competitive salaries and even housing for our preschool staff, the last few years have proven nearly futile in attracting qualified candidates to live and work on the Island,” Kris Scopinich, senior director of education at Mass Audubon, the conservation organization that operates Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, said in a statement to the Times. “We understand the impact this will have on our preschool families and we have a deep appreciation for them and our staff who have worked so hard to provide an enriching educational experience.”
Eighteen children enrolled in the program for this fall were notified of the closure only a few weeks before the school year started, leaving some to scramble for child care before the fall, while others found care rather quickly.
Garrett Burt, a Felix Neck Sanctuary board member and parent of two children who were enrolled in Fern & Feather, said he was surprised to find child care after being told of the closure.
“When we heard it was a possibility that the school would have to close, we immediately started doing outreach and getting on waitlists again. Based on our previous experience with trying to find childcare, we knew it was going to potentially be very tough to find something,” Burt said. “We are very sad that the school won’t be continuing on for our own kids but also for the wider Island community. Not only do we just not have enough childcare options on-Island, this school in particular was such a special offering that it’s a real shame to lose it.”
Burt’s three year old is now enrolled in Island Children’s School, and his older child, now five, will be heading to kindergarten.
Suzan Bellincampi, the director of Mass Audubon’s Felix Neck Sanctuary, said they’ll continue connecting people with nature at the reserve and educating the community that way “as we have for over 60 years.”
“We are proud of serving the Island’s need for early education and know our years of preschool have been vitally important for the children and families [who] were part of our program,” Bellincampi said in a statement to the Times.
Another parent, who asked to remain anonymous, said families were not given enough notice to plan appropriately for the school year. When staffing issues started arising a few years ago, she said many parents were advocating for positive change because they loved the program so much, and they were shocked when administrators announced that it would close permanently.
The closure comes at a time when a notable lack of affordable housing, child care, and rising food insecurity is affecting middle class Islanders, also known as the “missing middle.” Teachers are a part of that middle-income bracket and many have reportedly moved off-Island in recent years because of exorbitant living costs.
Fern & Feather preschool representatives described a difficulty in not only convincing teachers to move to the Island to work, but also helping them to stay.
“In a community where there is such a deep need for early childcare options, to have the only nature-based learning center close its doors is a tragedy,” the anonymous parent said.
When will the island come to terms about these issues. This type of program which seemingly didn’t provide enough pay and benefits to attract teachers just isn’t viable. We need to admit to ourselves that the “missing middle” will probably always be missing. We cannot build our way out of the affordable housing problem. We can and should subsidize fast ferries that run frequently. Most of our major cities which are expensive to live derive their workforce from commuters. Why do we think we’re so different? The wages here are far superior to what’s offered off island.
“The wages here are far superior to what’s offered off island.”— This simply isn’t true.
Somehow k-12 has become a straitjacket in our thinking about public education. MV, with its enormous and expanding real estate wealth, could easily afford to support pre-k schools in its public “system.” IMHO, a dollar spent on pre-school education has greater impact on developing lives than a dollar spent k-12. And here we have a school smart enough to build a program on our relationship with the rest of nature — forced to close its doors.
Reintroduce the MVRHS vocational education Child Care program. Students could get credits for working in a certified school under the work study program and get paid which might help.
I would also like to see the Certified Nurses Aide program.
Both could be helpful for students who are not going to be able to afford College and getting paid might be an incentive.