HENRICO, Va. (WWBT) – A preschool in North Henrico that has operated for 60 years will close its doors in February after the church that houses it cited financial difficulties.
Bethlehem Baptist Church on Wilkinson Road announced Nov. 1 that it could no longer afford to keep the preschool open, giving teachers and families 90 days’ notice.
Staff and parents say they have concerns about the church’s financial transparency and decision-making process.
“It just doesn’t pass the smell test. It just seems so wrong,” parent Tommy Bishop said.
The preschool had been paying monthly rent to Chamberlayne Baptist Church, which called that location home for decades.
But in 2021, Chamberlayne Baptist gifted the space debt-free to Bethlehem Baptist Church.
Bethlehem Baptist Church on Wilkinson Road announced Nov. 1 that its preschool would close due to operation costs, giving teachers and families 90 days’ notice.(WWBT)
After Bethlehem Baptist moved in, the church told the preschool it would be absorbed into its ministry, eliminating rent payments and having the church handle all finances.
“We have no control over the tuition. The tuition goes straight to the church leadership. Our directors have no control over paying staff. The church pays us, and the families pay the church,” a preschool teacher said.
Teachers said they offered to cut their pay and programs to ensure students could complete the full school year, but the church declined.
“And we were trying our best. We wrote letters. We asked for the congregation to hear our plea, as well. We asked for meetings, all of this, and then we were met with nothing, and just a full shutdown, no,” a teacher said.
Staff said they requested the church’s financial ledger but were refused. Instead, leadership provided several spreadsheets with contradictory information.
“It is strictly a ministry of the church. And to that end, at the beginning of this school year, the church’s trustee, or the Trustee Chair, Avis Winston, signed a document that’s directed at the Virginia Department of Education, asking for religious exemption for this school for the months of September ’25 through May of ’26,” Bishop said.
An attorney for the church said in a statement that the preschool operated at a loss for three years and the church has faced increasing costs associated with maintaining a 63-year-old building, adding that the church “deeply regrets having to discontinue housing the preschool within the church.”
Read the church’s full statement here
When asked if families would be refunded for tuition already paid in full, the church declined to comment further.
Parents never signed tuition contracts.
“But taken as a whole, all of the documents that parents signed, all the payments that they’ve made, all the calendars they received, the important dates list at the beginning of the year goes into May,” said Bishop.
He went on to say that this sudden closure really is making parents scramble as they could not have anticipated this happening mid-year.
“So no one that’s signing up and paying those registration activities fees, or agreeing to pay monthly tuition fees, or paying their tuition in full was doing that with the impression that all those important dates listed between February and May were just going to be X’d out because the church needed more money,” Bishop said.
Legal analyst Steve Benjamin said the church has a moral obligation to be transparent, even if there is no legal obligation.
“Should parents bring a lawsuit through civil representation, then the discovery process would make those records available to them. So yes, parents can obtain access to all of these financial records, and if they have questions, they certainly should,” Benjamin said.
The preschool is trying to find a new permanent home. A GoFundMe has been established to help since the church is holding the school’s money.
“The school is doing everything in its power to behave in a Christ-like fashion. The leadership here is very faithful, and they believe that there’s no point in us lowering ourselves to the standards that the church has shown over the last couple of months. We’re going to continue to take the high road and do the right thing, even when others won’t,” Bishop said.
One teacher said the closure affects both her job and her children’s education.
“Not only do I lose my class, but I have to now tell my two daughters that they’re no longer allowed to continue their school, their every day, in the place that they love, with the people that they love,” she said.
Another teacher described the impact on staff and families.
“We feel like the rug has been pulled out from under, not only us, the children and the parents,” the teacher said.
Families can use this state website to search for child care and to file a complaint. Click “Families” and then “Finding Child Care.”
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