By: Denis Cyr

Parents claim an expensive Tribeca preschool which closed their doors because of the pandemic destroying their business, ran off with the tuition without refunding them, NY Post reported.

Tribeca Citizen reported in August:

The owners of The Park Preschool, one of whom founded the school here in 1989, have decided to close permanently — finding that digging out from the hole that is the pandemic “has created a situation where our survival is not viable.”

I hope to talk to them personally, but in a letter to families, owners Kevin Artale and Ellen Offen said they struggled with the decision, as anyone could guess. “This is a heartbreaking outcome for what has been more than a business to us for 30 years, and we did not come to it easily. Needless to say, it is a decision that we have worked tirelessly to prevent. We have spent countless hours researching every avenue and exploring every solution to try to reopen.”

Several posts on the local NYC news site Tribeca citizen exposed this alleged theft.

“They both refuse(owners) to answer any of our emails or calls and took every opportunity to collect our money in full right before announcing a closure. It’s unethical and just downright disrespectful to all of our families in these hard COVID times, one parent wrote

“I was also a parent who Ellen and her staff insisted I make a payment a few days prior to announcing the permanently closing the school. I felt extremely comfortable with Ellen and her staff watching my child, but their behavior on how they are handling the closing is egregious” another parent wrote in the comments section.

The NY Post reached out to the owners of the former $17,000 a year tuition exclusive Park Preschool, Ellen Offen and Kevin Artale.

NY Post reported: Artale and Offen denied they took parents’ money knowing the school’s fate.

“Literally just a couple of days before our closing announcement, we were actively moving forward with plans to reopen,” they wrote, adding that they are using remaining funds to pay a “restructuring professional,” who is evaluating potential bankruptcy and helping “liquidate all remaining assets.”

But they stopped short of promising full refunds.

“Please know that we are working the hardest now than at other point this calendar year, to wind down business matters and preserve value for the benefit of the Park Preschool’s families and vendors,” they wrote.