Montessori schools in Portland, Tigard shutter after teachers launch union effort

Teachers and parents at two locations of Guidepost Montessori found out their day care facility was closing with less than 24 hours notice.

The abrupt closures of the Tigard and Portland locations were announced April 7, shortly after staff at both locations announced they intended to unionize with ILWU Local 5.

Emily Roan, a teacher in the Tigard location’s toddler program, said she felt shocked, frustrated and sad over “the reality that my time in my classroom with my children that I was teaching was over.” Some parents and children, who range from 1 to 6 years old, were able to connect outside of the classroom for a goodbye, but others weren’t.

Bitsie Appleton, a toddler teacher at Tigard, said she knew a closure was a risk.

“But I assumed that they would want to prioritize the families, the children and the teachers so they wouldn't want to close a school. And if they did, I would have thought that they would give us at least a day to talk to each other and to say goodbye,” Appleton said. “That was the biggest shock, that all of a sudden the community itself was just completely dissolved.”

“For toddlers especially, those dependable adults and the stable routine of going to school and knowing what to expect every day is incredibly important for their development. So just having that all taken away is really, really tough for really little children,” Roan said.

Unfair labor practice claims

Regional administrators for Higher Ground Education, Guidepost Montessori's parent company, told parents the closures were a temporary measure for at least three months because the heads of both locations resigned from their positions. After three months on furlough, during which time workers are not paid, Guidepost said it will reevaluate the two locations.

Since the two locations closed, ILWU Local 5 has filed an unfair labor practice claim with the National Labor Relations Board and started an online fundraiser to offer some relief to furloughed employees.

Appleton said that when the Lloyd location had previously closed for HVAC repairs, the company had made an effort to temporarily reassign Lloyd employees to other Guidepost locations. But that wasn't done this time, at least not for employees who were supportive of the union effort, Appleton said.

Some former teachers said they hope to return to Guidepost when, and if, the locations reopen, to ensure the union effort does not fizzle out, but not all of the employees can afford to wait.

Some parents were able to transfer their children to other Guidepost locations, but others said they would not return to Guidepost after seeing how the company handled the closure.

“There's no chance we're doing business with them anymore,” said Mario Avocato, who had an 18-month-old at the Lloyd location. “I couldn't trust them anymore.”

Megan Fleck said her and her husband had been happy with Guidepost since enrolling their two-year-old son at the Tigard location last summer.

But after Guidepost shut down, Fleck said her family would “absolutely not” return to the day care. “How people are treated matters to us, so if the people who are caring for my children aren’t cared for, then what good is it?” Fleck said.

A push to rectify safety concerns

For toddlers, care at Guidepost ran upwards of $2,000 per month. Classroom staff were paid around $20 per hour. Tigard sought to unionize 17 employees; Lloyd had 11.

Despite the revenue from more than 70 families at the Tigard location, “somehow we never seemed to have any more money to give teachers or for things for our classroom,” said Chloe Del Donno, a lead teacher in the young toddler room. “So we were always, in our union effort, very confused about where that money went and why Guidepost always seemed to claim to have so little money.”

Employees said safety concerns were a primary driver of the unionization effort. When there was a suspected gas leak at the Tigard location last summer, staff evacuated children to the school playground and remained there for hours. Other safety issues were documented in the Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care compliance portal .

“It started with some safety concerns that were not really being listened to by management,” Appleton said. “After just hearing so many coworkers say that they felt like all they could do was just leave the school instead of making any real change, it just felt like we needed to get together and try to talk to management as a team instead of just on an individual basis.”

Fleck said her family wouldn't return to Guidepost "because of what (the shutdown) unearthed."

"We learned a lot about the behavior and decisions around safety of our kids ... there's just tons of things that became apparent after this closure happened," Fleck said.

'We don't know if our school will ever open again'

Tigard teachers notified Guidepost of their intent to unionize in late March. In early April, teachers at the Lloyd location were preparing to file for union representation. Guidepost closed April 8.

Del Donno said workers thought unionizing two locations at the same time would offer some protection.

"We figured if if there were two centers at the same time, surely they can't shut down both of us. The amount of families that that would leave without childcare would be too unethical. But then that's exactly what they did," Del Donno said. "I feel like we did everything we could to protect our community from Guidepost."

The Lloyd location was open for less than a year-and-a-half but had multiple temporary closures, including weeks closed for repairs to the HVAC system earlier this year.

“I just couldn't believe that I was dealing with that again. And I couldn't believe that I was dealing with it on such short notice,” Avocato said of learning about the furloughs after months of issues.

The long waitlists for day care spots has added to the stress for families. During the frustration of the HVAC-related closures, Avocato and his wife got on the waitlist for another day care. They’re cobbling together work-from-home flexibility, vacations, and help from family until a spot at that day care will hopefully open up in the fall.

“We don't have any perfect solution, we're just kind of patching it together until, hopefully, September,” Avocato said.

Avocato said parents at the Lloyd location weren’t aware of the union campaign prior to the closure. Administrators did not mention the unionization effort in the closure announcement, instead saying that the head of school had resigned and they couldn’t keep the location open without a leader.

“We don't know if our school will ever open again. We don't know if there will even be enough families wanting to return that there's any kind of business or school left. So I think people are still really in a place of confusion and being unsure about next steps,” Del Donno said.

Angel Ignacio, Northwest Regional Manager for Higher Ground Education, told Tigard parents that closure was because the head of school and assistant head of school “let us know that they do not feel able to continue at the Tigard campus” and would be transferring to other campuses.

“This leaves us in a position where we have no choice but to temporarily close the school,” Ignacio wrote in the April 7 closure announcement. “I understand that a three month closure, without any guarantee that it will be limited to three months, means that many of our families will have to find alternate care.”

Ignacio did not respond to questions from the Portland Tribune.

Roan said she believes that if the school does reopen, “they will just start all over with a brand new staff and brand new families and brand new administration and just kind of pretend it never happened. We're trying to do what we can to prevent that.”