Hannah Eastman
Contributing Writer
On Aug. 23, 2023 the College of Wooster Nursery School (COWNS) Facebook page released a statement announcing an immediate pause on their services “due to operational and building challenges that [they] could not resolve.” In an email to faculty the following day, College staff were informed by President Anne McCall that the College was not able to “find a quick pathway to open this fall, while remaining compliant,” the first official communication from the College regarding the unexpected closure.
The nursery school has served as a valuable resource for the Wooster community for the better part of a century, whose focus on a “play-based, nature-inspired” learning environment is unique. “Everyone loves it,” explained associate professor of French & Francophone Studies Laura Burch, who signed a petition to save the nursery school, signed by over 200 members of the Wooster community at large. “Is there anything in the world that exists like that? It’s like this magical place that everyone, no matter who you are, how old you are, what your experience with it is. They love it.”
Associate psychology professor and neuroscience department chair Grit Herzmann’s youngest child enrolled in the nursery school in the spring. Herzmann explained the positive nature of back to school information coming from the nursery school as they prepared to switch administrators.
As both a parent of a nursery school student and member of the College faculty, Herzmann received multiple communications on the closure. “They have tried to find the solution and weren’t able to. So in [the email to parents of students enrolled in the school], it seemed to suggest that there was something that led up to it, and some people knew, but I don’t think the teachers knew.”
For many, the nursery school was a community staple. “There’s a lot of opportunity for older folks that have gone there and then send their grandchildren and kind of get to be in touch with the College to some extent,” said Herzmann. For College of Wooster students, the nursery school provides an experiential learning opportunity for psychology, education and communications majors who all take shifts in the nursery school both for courses and as student employees.
“That actually breaks down the ratio of adults to children tremendously,” Herzmann explained, discussing the benefit of “college friends” in COWNS classes. Three to five students are in the nursery school classroom at a given time together with two adult teachers. This student involvement has been attractive to families who have had children attend the school.
“They have the five year olds that show them how to share and how to take a turn and how to be caring and that’s what I really like,” Herzmann said, its focus on being a non-academic environment for early childhood growth in the College community making it special. Another important element of the nursery school’s approach to early childhood that made it appealing to community members was the engagement with children across ages.
While President McCall’s Aug. 24 communication announcing the nursery school’s closure to faculty and staff reiterated its commitment to “find[ing] an effective solution during the course of the school year” and “[advising] families once we knew we had no quick resolution,” the decision’s timing and short-notice communication has had many families who rely on COWNS for daytime child care rapidly searching to find an alternative.
As a community member and faculty member, Burch has watched the school go through changes until its eventual close. “It’s an amazing institution and… to see it gone like that from one day to the next is really devastating.”
The office of the President was not able to provide comment in time for publication.