NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The North Little Rock Montessori school plans to close for good on May 31st.
Now, parents are fighting to make sure their teachers still get the money they’ve earned.
Parents of the students who go to NLRMS say these educators deserve better.
Connie Gardner was disheartened when she learned her 4th graders’ school.
“With my son, it’s a little different case where he’s just not able to succeed in a large environment and this is a perfect school for him,” Gardner said.
What was further upsetting was learning the school’s handful of teachers were told they wouldn’t get their final paychecks.
“There are several parents that are reaching out to the community trying to get donations since it is a 501c. We do want the teachers to get paid,” Gardner said.
Gardner said the faculty of the 3-year-old through 6th-grade campus depends on those final 6 paychecks.
“They absolutely deserve that, they put in their time. They’ve, you know, molded our children,” Gardner said.
On a Go Fund Me page, they’ve raised just over $1,000, but it’s going to take a lot more than that to keep their doors open. Whatever money is raised will be divided amongst the teachers.
“I’m going to guess it’s in the neighborhood of, you know, 300,000 dollars,” teacher Barry Fisher said.
Teacher Barry Fisher is concerned about how his coworkers will make ends meet.
They are contracted to work for 9 months with their salaries being paid over a year period.
“It’s going to affect all the teachers. I mean, if you don’t get six paychecks you don’t get six paychecks. You’ve got rent to pay or, you know, house note and car payments,” Fisher said.
Parents have been looking for other funding as well.
RELATED: RemARKable Mom turned grandmother spreads joy, affection for literacy in all of central Arkansas
“I have reached out to other entities that could provide enrollments,” Gardner said.
Parents also said they wish the administrators would have let them know there was an issue with enrollment dropping.
“We could have probably made a huge difference and they wouldn’t be in this situation,” Gardner said.
THV11 reached out to the North Little Rock Montessori administration, but have yet to hear back as of Monday evening.