Families looking for new daycare as Hanover nursery closes

HANOVER, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) -- After 40 years of leasing space from the First Congregational Church of Hanover, the Hanover Nursery School has been told their lease will not be renewed. Within one month, dozens of families will need to find new childcare.

Hundreds of children have been educated at the that prides itself on its science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curriculum.

The school's lease was set to end next month, and as it has been many times before, everyone assumed it would be renewed.  But that did not happen, and the community is in shock.

Nursery school owner Ann Maczpacay wiped tears from her eyes Monday as she discussed what may be the end of a dream.

"If they had let us know at the beginning of the year, to give us a little more time, that would have been a different story," Maczpacay said.

On Thursday, the 40-year-old Hanover Nursery School was told their lease would not be renewed by First Congregational Church of Hanover. For a tenant in good standing, it came as a total shock.

"They didn't offer to raise the rent, nothing. You're just gone," Maczpacay said.

As we spoke with school leaders, mom Loredana Suciu looked on and cried. 

"All our plans are ruined," she said, adding one month is not enough time to make new arrangements. "No one has a back-up.  It's hard, they are working, they are students."

The school says the church told them the program doesn't fit with a new vision for the church, and indicated the rooms now occupied by the children could be rented out by the hour.

Five-year-old Martha says she'll miss it at the school.

"I cried a lot... 'cause I didn't want to leave my school," she said. "all my friends and all my stuff.

School director Fred Fuller says it's the students he'll miss the most. Just a few years from retirement, he wonders what will happen to the kids, their parents and the educators.

"All of us have put a lot of blood sweat and tears in kweping the school open and to have it end the way its ended....ee deserved better...especially from a church," he said.

FOX25 reached out to church staff multiple  times, but have not heard back. School leaders tell FOX25 after the announcement was made some members of the church leadership left for vacation.

In the meantime, the Hanover Nursery School is holding out hope they can find a space quickly that will allow them to continue to provide affordable child care.

Cox Media Group