Good Shepherd Preschool Update
The Good Shepherd Preschool has closed.
Please check out upcoming children and youth programs here at Good Shepherd.
Message from John Masterson, Good Shepherd Church Council President - Jan. 2023
In December 2021, the Council launched a Preschool Exploratory Committee. In part the Committee was asked to:
Consider possible collaborations, partnerships, expansion of scope, licensure, accreditation and other opportunities that would allow this ministry to reach further into the community.
Soon thereafter, the committee identified a potential partner, The Bezos Academy, that offers a Montessori based full day preschool program with no cost to parents. Good Shepherd and the Bezos Academy agreed to explore this possibility and conduct the necessary due diligence work to make final decisions. During the ensuing months, both parties worked in good faith to openly discuss and conduct the necessary planning. It has been a diligent and constructive process.
However, this week Good Shepherd was notified by The Bezos Academy that they are not moving forward with the project. They explained the following:
Our facility was not the determining factor in their decision. There were some challenges with our room size, but their leadership & Construction Team thought that there was a path to get the facility how they needed it within a reasonable cost.
The bigger issues they conveyed were twofold. 1) It is particularly challenging to hire teachers in this area at this time. 2) Licensing in western WA was also cited as particularly challenging. These two areas were the reasons they are pausing expansion in western WA.
They have some projects in western WA that are about to go online. Current plans are to get these online, then pursue growth in TX, FL, and in other areas where the regulatory environment is easier and teacher talent is more plentiful.
As they have expanded, they have found that it is really hard to support a single school in one location. They have begun clustering 3 schools (about 10 or more classrooms) within 20-30 minutes of each other. This allows them to leverage food services, teacher support, and hiring across multiple locations. We would have been one of three locations in our general area if they had moved forward. Needless to say, 3 schools in the area would require more teachers which makes the shortage that much more of an issue.
While disappointing, this allows Good Shepherd to pursue other possibilities to continue the preschool legacy that operated at Good Shepherd pre-pandemic. The Council discussed the possibility of Bezos declining to move forward, and have plans to reactivate the search for another solution. As you may recall, the Exploratory Committee concluded early on in their work that: 1) the community needs additional all-day child care and 2) that future child care services at Good Shepherd should be licensed.
We will continue this journey, listening and looking for where the Holy Spirit is leading us. Stay tuned.
