Bend’s Deschutes River Montessori School abruptly closes doors, leaving parents scrambling and facing financial hit

'Parents and teachers have been cheated by this closure in many ways'

BEND, Ore (KTVZ) -- Parents were blindsided by this week's sudden closure of a Montessori school in Bend.

Early Monday, Deschutes River Montessori School informed parents of concerning air quality levels within their building.

In a follow-up email, it was indicated that air quality had worsened, resulting in early dismissal for students.

By late Monday afternoon, the school officially announced they were closing their doors, effective immediately, leaving parents scrambling. 

"We're really shocked," says Cody Gillenwater, the parent of a student at the school. "The staff has been great. The teachers have been great. Our son loves coming here, and this came out of nowhere."

The closure is adding to the already heavily impacted child care system in Central Oregon.

"It's a struggle to find child care in Central Oregon, and so I think a lot of families are probably having a hard time today, this week, trying to figure out some alternative plans," said Gillenwater. "Then for those that had signed up for the 24-25 school year, finding school for their kids too."

Gillenwater says his family has been struggling to find alternative care. Like other parents, he is now out $900 for the rest of the summer care.

Another parent, Justin Bates, said, "Parents are going to have to make really, really tough decisions in the coming weeks about how they use their job benefits, how they use their PTO, how they manage going to work every day."

Bates' child has been enrolled in the Montessori school for the last year. He said he's not surprised by the sudden closure, saying it had become difficult to reach the administration, among other issues.

"It seems like the writing has been on the wall for this kind of situation for quite a while," he said. "And it's really unfortunate that parents weren't able to see what was really going on with the school, because leadership was really doing a lot, as I understand it, to keep teachers from communicating with parents."

NewsChannel 21 reached out for an interview with the school's owner, Elaine May, who in April moved to Portugal. She sent us a lengthy statement, saying the loss of the school is devastating for her and her husband, and the closure happened due to staff resigning.

Bates said, "An email from teachers came out saying that the teachers weren't going to receive their paychecks for this final week, so teachers just decided not to come back."

Leading up to the closure, Bates said teachers described a toxic work environment.

"A teacher who had 20 plus years of early childhood experience was demoted because of personal differences between her and leadership," he added.

May included in her statement that they are communicating with the bank and the school to cut refund checks for parents. 

She wrote, "We directed our bank Monday morning to lock down all school funds. We are in communication with the bank and the DRMS administration to coordinate a plan to cut refund checks to DRMS families who have prepaid their children's 2024-2025 tuitions."

Bates said, "100% parents and teachers have been cheated by this closure in many ways. Every parent at Deschutes River Montessori School is owed something at this point, and at the very least, they're owed an explanation."

Some parents tell us they've reached out to other local Montessori schools, but were told they are at capacity. While we did get a statement from the Deschutes River Montessori School's owner, the executive director did not respond to our request for an interview.