On the personal front (which is always somehow political), the formal closure of our daughter’s early education program was announced today. In the morning, Jeannette Doina, who has served as the Director of the program for almost 20 years, was led out of the building with a box in hand, and reassigned “somewhere else.”

At 1:00 pm, the school staff had a formal meeting with the Dean of UH’s College of Education, as well as with UH Human Resources, and were informed that the school was closing as of July 31. As parents, we were given 2 months notice to find another space for our children. Over the last month, the Parent Advisory Board has repeatedly requested meetings with the Dean and has pressed for more information — to no avail. Frustrated by the silence, we went ahead and posted a petition online.

And then, late afternoon today, parents received an email from the Dean, along with the announcement of a 7:15 pm meeting tomorrow night. The Lab School has a history of forty years of serving toddlers. It is outrageous that one body of “education” administration can charge through a program and shut it down without once talking with families most served by the program. Now, like all the 4o families in the program, we are scrambling to find a space for Minal in the fall. And at the same time, we are still continuing to speak out against the lies we’ve been told for months, against the way the director and teachers were treated, and against the way our kids have been disregarded.