I ran into a friend who’s son is a student at Brooklyn Heights Montessori and she told me that the school, a haven for 3- and 4-year-olds with language and visual processing issues, will stay open until August of 2010.

This is good news for the children and staff already in the school but a huge loss for the Brooklyn educational landscape.

And it’s the second pre-school in brownstone Brooklyn to announce its plans to close this year. We know it’s expensive to run a school. But what’s the deal here?

Dane L. Peters, the head of BrooklynHeights Montessori, told the New York Times that The Little Room required a subsidy
of more than $100,000 a year to make up the difference between the
program’s expenses and about $1.2 million in annual reimbursements from
the state.

Parents at the school are obviously relieved that the school is not closing at the end of this school year but still slightly vexed by the school’s handling of the matter.