(NewsNation) — An entire preschool’s teaching staff in Ohio quit recently after losing faith in their administrators.
The last day of preschool at St. Peter’s United Church of Christ Preschool in Amherst was last Friday. While the tight-knit teachers said they’ve dedicated their lives to helping children learn, they felt forced to exit the small school after being at odds with the church council for months.
Former teachers say the lack of financial transparency from the administration, especially when it came to funds they had helped raise, played a big part in their departure.
“I have been a teacher and assistant director there for 18 years, and over our length of time and my time teaching, they could never give us the amount of the funds that were in our budget,” one former staff member, Heather Nail, told “NewsNation Now,” adding that many parents had donated and school staff had fundraisers to get that money.
When the school was questioned about the budget, they would not give teachers the information they needed.
“We started in 2006 with 34 students, and now we have 102 students,” Nail said. “We built this preschool on our reputation and trust, that we’re not getting back from the church, but we always got from our parents.”
It’s been these “wonderful, supportive” parents that have gotten teachers through this rough time, Nail said.
Staff members have gotten “thousands” of thank you calls, and parents even reached out to newspapers on their behalf.
“Every day parents are reaching out just to say, ‘How are you doing?’” Nail said.
For many teachers, it has still been rough, as this was their livelihood, with many of them working at St. Peter’s for years. The lack of response employees got from the administration when announcing their resignation was also disappointing, Nail said.
“We didn’t get anything of any appreciation or thank you,” she said. “And our last day, they had an officer there to escort us out. It was very sad. The only thing that we had in support was our own faith.”