After 35 years, Building Blocks Preschool will be closing its doors at the end of the year. Owner Devi Harper said the business never fully recovered from the pandemic-related shutdowns and the teacher shortage that followed.
“If you’ve watched the national news, you’ve heard the price of day care is going up and it’s getting increasingly difficult for parents to both afford and find day care,” Harper said. “The teacher shortage – that’s where the issue lies. Everyone has additional rooms to open, but the enrollment has to be based on (teacher-to-student) ratios.”
Harper began working for Building Blocks in 1998 and purchased the business in 2007. There were initially two locations, 805 Chatham Road and 770 Apple Orchard Road, which were consolidated into the building at the corner of Chatham Road and Lawrence Avenue in 2018, she said.
Harper said that as of March 20, 2020, the preschool had 320 students enrolled. Immediately following the state-imposed mandate that limited the preschool to serving children of essential workers, enrollment dropped to 27 students. Even when Building Blocks and other businesses were allowed to reopen, the preschool was never able to return to pre-pandemic levels for staff or students.
“In five years, we haven’t been able to get above 160 (students),” Harper said. “The waiting list is there, but a lot of teachers got out of the field. I lost a lot of the staff (during the pandemic), lost the ability to provide night care. We used to be open until 11:45 at night.”
She said she is deeply saddened by the loss of the business “but it’s basic accounting – not enough revenue and too many expenses.”
Harper said that her current staff has “a lot of longevity,” ranging from eight years to 31 years. She hopes to keep the preschool operating until Dec. 31.
“We have a lot of staff that want to stay until the end,” she said.
