MISSOULA — Childcare providers who operate within the Cold Spring School were notified on Friday, Nov. 7, that they needed to immediately vacate the building due to part of it being structurally insecure.
Now over 70 children are left without care.
“Basically, where we're at now is we're just completely let down,” said Katy Slagell, owner of Atti-Tudees, a childcare service in the Cold Springs School.
Cold Springs School is home to several independent childcare providers. They pay Missoula Child Care Advantage (MCCA) rent to operate in old classrooms.
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Missoula County Public Schools (MCPS) owns the building.
“Now I'm sitting at nineteen grand deep and there's no possibility of moving in and permanent, buying or doing anything now. It's in this space that's no longer usable at all,” said Bumble Bee Academy owner Katy Slagell.
MCCA notified childcare providers in the building, like Slagell, that they had to vacate the building immediately, as the other wing of the building was deemed to be at immediate risk of structural failure.
“No business, no nothing, you are done — structurally at stake. So I let my parents know. And at that moment forward, I realized that my business was done,” said Slagell.
MCCA, part of United Way, put over $500,000 into renovating the old building to prepare it for use, and United Way for Missoula County CEO Susan Hay Patrick says that the state of the building was unknown at the time the renovations took place.
“We knew we were moving into an old school building, but we spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to renovate the spaces that we occupy. And our childcare providers also spent a lot of time, money, sweat, equity into making their rooms just these beautiful spaces for kids. So obviously we would not have moved in if we'd known that a year later, what would be happening,” said Hay Patrick.
MCCA says that they are unsure of the extent of the structural issues, only that they were notified by MCPS that the building was unsafe.
“I imagine they have a maintenance crew that saw something, but I honestly don't know,” said Hay Patrick.
"We understand the urgency of this situation for the families who depend on these child care services," MCPS Superintendent Micah Hill stated. "Our team is working with our partners to find suitable temporary locations as quickly as possible.”
MCCA stated that they are unsure of when childcare providers will be able to return to their space, if they are able to return at all.
The remaining tenants in the building are unaffected.
