By Gus Saltonstall
A longtime Morningside Heights preschool is unexpectedly closing its doors after more than 90 years in the community.
The Weekday School, located at 490 Riverside Drive, near West 121st Street, announced in an email to its community on Monday that it will be permanently closing at the end of the school year.
“After much deliberation and reflection, the Church Council of The Riverside Church has decided to close their preschool, The Weekday School, at the end of the current school year, June 2025,” Jean Schmidt, the chair of the Riverside Church Council wrote. “This was a very difficult decision to make given the rich history of the School and the positive impact it has had on countless children and families. Unfortunately, shifting demographics and lower enrollment have significantly impacted the ability of the School to continue operation and fulfill its mission.”
The email continued, “We extend our deepest gratitude to our committed families who have helped make Weekday a supportive and inclusive community.”
The Weekday School opened in Morningside Heights in 1930.
Upon receiving the unexpected closure announcement, community members of the school immediately created a petition to “Save the historic Weekday School,” which has 281 signatures as of Tuesday morning.
“We, the heartbroken parents, students, and community members of The Weekday School at Riverside Church, are calling for an immediate reversal of the decision to close its doors after 95 years of serving our community,” reads the petition. “The school’s closure leaves countless families scrambling. What about our children? What about the spirit of inclusivity and respect that The Weekday School fostered for generations? Will it simply vanish?”
You can check out the full petition — HERE.
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Why Columbia is taking over of the beauty of our neighborhood?!
It has nothing to do with Columbia, and the Weekday School has never been a religious school.
This has absolutely nothing to do with Columbia. Columbia has preschools. This is Riverside Church. They have declining enrollment as most religious schools are seeing. .
This is very sad, unfortunately a petition won’t make the enrollment numbers increase. Daycare has high fixed costs (building, teachers) and you need to maintain a certain enrollment so that those cost are covered.
Perhaps if we built more housing for families there would be more families who could afford to live nearby and send their children there. Has anyone considered this? Maybe we could start a petition?
This is already one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the country. How much housing do you want to cram into this tiny collection of streets?
According to the consensus on WSR, the only housing that should be built is low income housing. Not sure why, but that is what we are told. I just checked and The Weekday School’s tuition is actually well below many other private pre-schools. But it still is not cheap. And I’m guessing someone in low income housing could not afford it. Therefore, more housing doesn’t help.
If readers would be more open minded and not complain about every market rate apartment is built, then your solution might have merit.
I am very sorry this school is closing. As the DOE constantly tinkers with middle schools and high schools, they forget that early childhood education is the key to lifelong academic success – if a kid gets to HS unprepared, it is largely too late.. I was not a fan of deBlasio but his efforts to increase the availability of pre-school were really great.
More housing does help – especially market rate which most UWS residents live in. I’ve had many friends decide to leave NYC when they have a kid bc they can’t afford a family sized apartment.
WSR commenters may complain but they are not representative of the UWS, giver voters a chance to support building more housing. That’s much more effective than a petition.
Is the consensus that we want low income housing or affordable housing? IMO they’re two completely different things. And most people in affordable housing should be able to afford day care. Not at this school specifically, but I know it can be done. I knew several families with two working parents who sent their kids to private day care and then to private schools.
Housing is always affordable, after all someone owns it. The question is affordable for whom? There are millions of people who would love to live in Manhattan, including my parents, in-laws and friends, but cannot afford to. If you don’t want the market to allocate housing in Manhattan, what do you propose that is fair and that does not rob Peter to pay Paul?
I don’t know why this is being addressed to me. Do I need to add that my friends and I are all seniors, we’ve all lived in walk ups our entire lives, our rents are raised every year, we all continue to work, and that’s how we can afford to live here? As I said, it can be done, and my friends have sacrificed a lot so their kids could go to private schools.
I am fascinated by what they mean about changing demographics. I would imagine there are more little kids that need to go to preschool. Maybe there are fewer families that want to go to a church affiliated pre school?
I worked across the street for 15 years and didn’t know this school existed. Maybe more reach out to the community and surrounding area. There are probably several women who work in the Interchurch and Columbia that would love to have their child in school that close.
To those speculating that this has to do with a lack of interest in religious schools, note that Weekday is non-denominational. We are not Christian and happily sent our child there. The place is a gem. And this is very, very sad.
The preschool at Christ & St Stephen’s church on W 69th St closed a couple of years ago with, I believe, a similar rationale about changing demographics. I wonder if the DOE’s pre-k and 3-k initiatives (which I applaud) has siphoned off enough kids that we don’t need as many private preschools.
In the words of the immortal Bambi Kramer of “This Is Spinal Tap,” “Money talks and bullshit walks.” I do not know that this little school is “bullshit,” but money talks. I went through all of this when another UWS school closed its upper school. In the end, those who pay get what they pay for. I am saddened to be cynical, but there it is.
We need more market rate housing in Morningside Heights, Manhattanville to fill these schools and businesses. Universal Pre K and lower birth rate has closed many preschools due to low enrollment.
Any word on what Columbia plans to do with the space once they start leasing it? Also how many students does the school now serve? And if its program were fully enrolled, how many? Are there just fewer families in that part of town? End of the baby boom kids? More childless students? More of a split between free pre-school and fancier private school- using families? I.e. What are the “changing demographics”? Sorry so many questions- just always interesting what is behind a change of a small but long lived community institution like this. I know it is money, loss of money, loss of church participation (so a church can’t subsidize a school through much more declining enrollment…) – just curious as to the questions above if anyone knows.
Information is out there if people would bother to look:
“Jean Schmidt, chair of the Riverside Church council, said the school’s enrollment has not been at full capacity for “a number of years” and that the city’s rollout of universal pre-K in the past decade has lowered the demand for private preschools such as Weekday. She added that the changing ratio of families paying full tuition to those receiving financial aid also played a role in the decision.”
https://www.columbiaspectator.com/city-news/2024/12/17/riverside-church-to-close-historic-weekday-school-in-june/
Very long story short Weeday School is suffering from same forces as many other private nursery, pre-K and K schools.
OTOH there is declining enrollment as birth rates decline and or parents choose to leave city for suburbs or elsewhere. Piled on to that slice of reality comes fact NYC’s on free universal pre-K and other efforts are siphoning off children whose parents now have another (free) option.
https://nypost.com/2023/05/09/new-yorks-birth-rate-declines-amid-population-exodus-report/
Many parents will keep their financial powder dry so to speak by choosing a low cost to free pre-K or even K if it’s high quality and otherwise suits. This gives some breathing room before decisions must be made about first grade.
Some private elementary/grammar/prep schools give preference to first graders coming in from their own kindergarten classes. Thus there parents seeking to get their children into whole prep school track usually are keen on which kindergarten they choose.
Think many inhabitants of UWS including those who post on WSR live in sort of a bubble.
Happy in their rent regulated apartments or perhaps they bought when things were different (and thus cheaper), but am here to tell you that NYC has a huge housing affordability crisis and it’s not just poor people.
Households earning $100k to $200k, which by the way in HCL city and state (along with high taxes) is *NOT* a lot of money. After federal, state and NYC taxes and other payroll deductions about 1/4-1/3 of that gross paycheck amount is deducted. Then come deductions for healthcare, savings/investments and retirement planning.
Manhattan and other areas of city are woefully short of large “family” sized (think two to three bedroom) affordable apartments. What is being created via city’s affordable lotteries skews to poor or very poor households.
Result is college and post graduate educated professionals are moving out of city due to high cost of living and lack of affordable childcare.
https://archive.is/jUPFP
I believe once these preschools merged with the DOE few years ago enrollment has been declining due to the hours changed many families want 8am -6pm not 8 -2:35pm DOE school schedule. let’s be real a working parent full time work schedule is typically 8 hours and the DOE hours dont cut it especiallywhen they not offering after-school to preschoolers.