Columbia's Ousting Of Beloved Harlem Preschool Leaves Parents 'Scared'

HARLEM, NY — A treasured preschool that has spent 50 years caring for kids in West Harlem and Morningside Heights is set to be displaced by its landlord, Columbia University — sparking outrage from local leaders and despair from parents.

"We are incredibly scared," said Anne Edouard, whose three-year-old son attends Red Balloon Learning Center.

She is one of many parents with glowing words for the preschool, based since 1972 in a Columbia building on Riverside Drive and West 125th Street. Edouard's son has a disability, relying on a tracheostomy to breathe, and Red Balloon eagerly accommodated him as other schools hesitated, she said.

Red Balloon pays no rent to occupy the purpose-built space provided by the university, allowing the nonprofit to charge a fairly affordable tuition of $2,500 per month. The result is a "very diverse community," with children of color making up more than 60 percent of the school, according to parent board president Annapurna Potluri Schreiber.

Last year, however, Columbia informed Red Balloon that it planned to close the preschool by December 2021. The school managed to delay the closure, only to be told again on Aug. 12 that its lease would be canceled by Aug. 31, 2023.

"Starting in January, 2023, the appropriate Columbia offices will work with Red Balloon to develop a transition plan for leaving the space at 560 Riverside," reads the August letter to Red Balloon's director from Columbia's Office of Work-Life.

Columbia offered little explanation for the looming displacement — which was first reported by the Columbia Spectator and THE CITY — and did not respond to questions from parents, neighborhood leaders and university faculty, according to Potluri Schreiber.

In a statement to Patch, Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang said Red Balloon had a history of "being unresponsive amid constant leadership turnover – with new directors and new board members on a regular basis over the past five years."

Columbia says the school's failure to communicate its staffing changes goes against a written agreement with its affiliated childcare centers. But Potluri Schreiber says knocking Red Balloon for changing leadership makes little sense: until 2020, its director served for more than 30 years, and the teacher who stepped in as interim director died months later.

A subsequent director had to resign unexpectedly due to a medical problem, but Red Balloon has since hired another director who remains on the job, Potluri Schreiber said.

"I mean, someone died," Potluri Schreiber said. "It’s incredibly callous for them to characterize it as if it were a fault and not an enormous tragedy."

Potluri Schreiber also called Columbia's claim of changing board membership "nonsense," noting that since it is comprised of parents, the board's makeup automatically changes every few years as children graduate from Red Balloon.

Chang, the Columbia spokesperson, also cited "concerns in the ability of Red Balloon to provide a quality education to children," which he said led Columbia to terminate the school's lease.

Potluri Schreiber likewise disputed the notion that Red Balloon was academically faulty, saying the university had devoted little time to examining the preschool's track record.

"If our school was anything short of excellent, our parents and alum parents wouldn’t be fighting so hard to keep us open," she said.

Besides charging little tuition, Red Balloon is also one of the few neighborhood preschools to offer full-day care, running as late as 6 p.m.: a lifeline for working parents.

"I personally would not have been able to keep my job during the pandemic if it weren’t for Red Balloon," said Potluri Schreiber, who works at Columbia. "If Columbia means what it says when it states it has a commitment to feminism and to anti-racism work, then you don’t punish the people who are doing that work."

City Councilmember Shaun Abreu sent a letter to Columbia, urging it to renew Red Balloon's lease, while Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine called on the university to meet with the preschool's leaders. In a Thursday rally on campus, Columbia graduate students plan to demand that the university renew Red Balloon's lease, framing it as an issue of reproductive justice.

Grasping for an explanation for the displacement, some parents speculate that Columbia is seeking to replace Red Balloon with a for-profit childcare provider capable of paying more rent — a claim that the university denies.

Wherever Red Balloon ends up, Potluri Schreiber says the threat of displacement will only sow more bitterness toward Columbia in West Harlem, which is already wary of the university's continued march uptown.

With application deadlines looming, Edouard said she has been left to "scramble" for a new daycare if Red Balloon no longer exists by next year.

"My child has literally thrived in a space like Red Balloon, so it's heartbreaking to hear that there would ever be any consideration to close down a school," she said.

Have a Harlem news tip? Contact reporter Nick Garber at [email protected].