The Willow Glen Resident Applegate preschool's closure has left dozens of parents in the lurch Church says the school's owner knew her lease was about to expire By Cecily Barnes After their short holiday break, Willow Glen resident Steve Malone and his wife Laurie will return to work--he at Broadquest and she as a teacher at Mission High School. However, because Calvin Presbyterian Church voted Saturday against extending the lease of Applegate School--which expires with the new year--their 4-year-old son Matthew will not be returning to his familiar routine. "My son is hurt, he is very sad," said Steve Malone. "I find it difficult to understand why [the church board] can't look in their hearts on Christmas and find a solution that's good for the children." On Dec. 8, parents of nearly 60 children ages 3 to 6 who attend Applegate School were informed by the school's owner, Lee Cox, that Applegate's lease with the Meridian Avenue church was about to expire. In three short weeks, parents would have to find a different school for their children. Reluctant to spend the holidays scrambling for somewhere to put their kids, parents began negotiating with church officials, and on Saturday Dec. 19, they made an official appeal before the 14-member church board to extend the lease until June. Citing long-standing problems with Cox, the church board denied the parents' appeal, even though the new tenant, the Montessori School, will not move in until summer. "It bothered the church board that there was no way for those parents, who they were sympathetic to, to assume legal control," said John Lococo, of the local Presbytery--which oversees 45 local churches. "[The board] didn't want to trust Ms. Cox because of her history of broken promises." According to Lococo, during Applegate School's ten years at the Calvin Presbyterian Church, contentious encounters between Cox and the church officials have erupted on numerous occasions. "The church wanted certain things that she never complied with," Lococo said. For example, he said, Cox never supplied the church with a set of keys to get into the school in case of an emergency. Board members did not want to make their difficulties with Cox public, so chose not to provide other examples. Lococo said Cox could have given parents plenty of notice because she agreed to terminate the lease in a contract she signed in August. "This agreement was signed by the attorneys, it was signed by legal officers, the church board and Lee Cox," Lococo said. "She didn't bother to tell the parents about this until Dec. 7 of this year." But parents say that is neither here nor there. Instead of determining who is at fault, parents simply want a school for their children until summer, which would give them six months to look for a replacement school. "[School] is a progression. You can't just pull someone out of the classroom at any school and expect them to continue," Malone said. "Right now we're going to put [Matthew] in day care but he's going to miss half-a-year of school. Already, he's nearly a reader. He recognizes a lot of words and he knows plus and minus. I'm just afraid he's going to go backwards on that." [ Back to Contents Page | Willow Glen Resident Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Willow Glen Resident, December 23, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.