A New School Rises From St. Timothy’s
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When A Top Preschool Suddenly Closed, Parents Of One Child Worked Overtime To Open A New School, Keeping The Same Teachers And Staff
After the sudden closure of St. Timothy’s Children’s Center in early June, Cheryl and Jeoffrey Cudiamat - along with about 80 other families with toddlers in the Aiea/Pearl City areas - suddenly found themselves back at step one of the very competitive preschool search.
“St. Timothy’s was a very prestigious preschool. There’s usually a waiting list to get in, so people try to apply real early,” says Jeoffrey.
Cheryl adds, “Parents look for schools six months to a year prior to when they expect to have their child enrolled. Carson (their eldest child) was there for one year, and he was supposed to go for a second. To even tell a child, ‘Your school’s not there,’ he can’t understand that. There shouldn’t be a reason why a school gets abruptly closed. “
“And that affected a lot of the parents,” continues Jeoffrey. “Because it was so late in the enrollment process, a lot of schools in this area didn’t have openings. It was a strain on a lot of parents.”
A staff of 18 teachers, administrative assistants and maintenance workers also were left wondering what to do next.
“Basically when we got the letter of the closure of the school, it was the same letter that the parents got saying there would be a meeting,” says one teacher, who wishes to remain unnamed. “When we went to the meeting that night, it was just a letter read saying the school would close, this is not a time to answer questions, and that was it. Everybody was in shock and didn’t understand the reason that they gave about ‘renovations.’”
Two other teachers and the Cudiamats, who own the engineering architectural design firm Structural Hawaii Inc., explain that this lack of communication among the groups had been a rising trend at St. Timothy’s over the past school year. Teachers and parents filed separate grievances against the school, to no real resolution. Then there was a sudden tuition spike, but the biggest shocker came when the school’s accreditation was allowed to lapse in January.
After the closure, the Cudiamats spent the following months working with former St. Timothy’s staff members and researching the next steps they needed to take to create their very own preschool.
Fast-forward to Aug. 18 and it all seems a faded midsummer dream. At the Keiki Care Center of Hawaii (KCCOH), located at Wayland Baptist Academy’s newly renovated Learning Annex, two inquisitive 4-year-olds create shapes with building blocks in one area as a handful of their classmates are busy writing or playing with their teachers in the imaginative dress-up space. In the next room, it’s time for the 3-year-old class to run, jump and giggle around an indoor playground complete with slides, music-making toys, a toddler-sized rock wall and faux grass.
The walls also are busy with activity thanks to paintings of swimming oceanic creatures, blossoming hibiscus flowers, swaying palms and brightly colored rainbows, KCCOH’s logo. Each of the four rented classrooms also is separated into different learning spaces, a setup the teachers say they have found lends a balance between skill and social development.
But what is most amazing about this overhaul is the amount of time in which it was all achieved. From the moment Cheryl and Jeoffrey learned St. Timothy’s was closing, they sprang to action to secure a place where the misplaced faculty and children could return to in the fall.
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“I haven’t stopped working since June 3 - I remember the date clearly since it’s literally transformed our lives,” Cheryl exclaims with a joyful sigh. “But we’re so happy and blessed to be able to help all of these families and teachers.”
Cheryl and Jeoffrey had their eyes on a space in the Hollywood Beauty College building as the initial location of KCCOH. Due to the exact specifications for preschools, Cheryl had to scrap those plans. As luck would have it, she learned that Wayland Baptist University was leasing classrooms for use in the day.
“The dean of Wayland, Dr. Steven Reid, has been very integral in making this preschool happen,” says Cheryl. “He does feel for the faculty and all the families displaced by the closure, and he really wanted to help.”
Acquiring a building already set up for learning and the know-how of the former St. Timothy’s teachers also made a huge impact in getting approval and the proper permits from state and city officials.
“It was so important to keep these teachers’program and curriculum alive and to keep them together, since after 30 years, what they have developed is really second-to-none,” Cheryl explains. “The teachers were the school, the curriculum was the school, not the facility.”
The Cudiamats were able to give eight teachers and one administrative assistant jobs at KCCOH, but they hope to add a few more to that number soon as more children are enrolled. Cheryl confides that they will apply for accreditation after their first year of operations, and are also looking to open an additional preschool/discovery center in Pearl City within the coming year.
“Our goal, on the business side, is to really shift the running of the school to the teachers. One, they’re the experts and two, they know what to do best for the kids. And we’re here really as resources to make sure that their goals are met.”
All three teachers chime in: “And we’re forever grateful that Carson was in our class, because without Cheryl and Jeoffrey ... there’d be no other parents that would be so giving to have a job for us and open up this school.”
Despite, or maybe thanks to, the good, the bad and the ugly of this entire learning experience, KCCOH has quickly become a place of joy, growth and security for the two dozen keiki now attending the preschool.
“This industry is all new to me, and from my continuous research on the market, it actually appalls me to know that there are schools, many schools, out there in it for the money, not in it for the best of the children,” Cheryl states, adding, “As I tell many of our potential new families, we are not only owners, but clients as well. We are putting the very best into this school to make this possibly the best learning and social environment for your child.
“We do still need more children to enroll, but like everything else, I have faith that the school will fill up. Families just need to come to see what I’m talking about and meet the wonderful teachers I speak of to know exactly why my husband and I did everything we could to get this new school open as soon as possible.”
Keiki Care Center of Hawaii is currently accepting applications for children ages 2-4. Enrollment reservation forms, requirements and more information can be found online at www.keikicarehawaii.com.
Parents of the first 50 children enrolled get $50 off each month’s tuition cost for the first year of school.
The childcare center is located in the Wayland Baptist University Learning Annex in Aiea.
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