For the past four decades, the Town and Country Farm School in Placerita Canyon provided generations of children with “a rural atmosphere,” giving them an opportunity to gain a traditional education in close proximity to nature.
Since 1976, the family-operated private school provided early childhood education and daycare, as well as a kindergarten-through-sixth-grade after-school program, according to the school’s official website. On its licensed, 2.5-acre campus, children “encounter farm animals, fruit orchards, gardens and plenty of open space.”
But on March 8, parents coming to pick up their children like any other Friday afternoon, were told “with no notice” Town and Country Farm School would be closing down. Multiple attempts to reach someone from the school’s administration were not returned as of this story’s publication.
“We went to pick up the kids, and they just (said), ‘Don’t come back Monday,’” said Kristen Turcios, a Santa Clarita mother who had a preschooler and first-grader enrolled at the school. “They said they were trying to restructure to reopen, but that was it. No timing or anything else.”
“I was not totally surprised as their enrollment had gone down, but I was a bit shocked at the timing,” said Turcios. “They had just hired a new director that week… things were looking up.”
A three-sentence-long note taped to the front door of the school provided a phone number for parents to contact if they wanted fees or tuition reimbursed, and ended with an apology “for any inconvenience or transition at this time.”
“One nice thing is that the school did not cash our checks for last month,” Turcios said.
As the traditional school year still has at least two months left before summer, parents are scrambling to find new alternatives for their children’s education.
“I have found another preschool for my youngest — but for my first-grader, it has been rough,” Turcios said. “My husband and I both work full-time and need a place to pick her up from school, and every local day care is full.”
As of Thursday afternoon, parents have said they’re still waiting to hear from ownership about a possible refund and if the school plans to reopen.
