Parents in Mount Pleasant are urging D.C. leaders to prevent the closure of Rosemount Center, a bilingual Spanish-English early childhood education center that has served the community for more than 50 years. The center announced Friday that its landlord, House of Mercy, had terminated their subsidized lease for the building.

Rosemount currently leases the Episcopal charity’s property for a dollar a year. House of Mercy says it is financially unsustainable to renew the lease. The center’s leaders are asking the city to purchase the building. They say if they don’t get help from the District, they will have to close the center by August 31.

The announcement came as an especially big blow to low-income and Spanish-speaking families at the center. Rosemount is one of very few bilingual early childhood education centers and for many parents, the only affordable option they could find. As a Head Start grantee, Rosemount receives federal funding to serve low-income families and provides vital resources for children like free medical and dental care as well as meals.

Jessica Magidson, who has a four-year-old and a one-year-old at Rosemount, says the center is a “staple in the community” and won’t be replaceable.

“Closing Rosemount would jeopardize care for so many families,” Magidson says.

Rosemount serves about 240 families, many of whom get their children into the center after years on a waitlist — common in D.C. with the shortage of childcare. Some parents enter Rosemount’s waitlist before their children are even born. Magidson got on the waitlist when she was pregnant with her four-year-old daughter. They got into the center when she turned two-and-a-half.

For parents of children currently at Rosemount, finding quality affordable childcare by August will be very difficult.

Rosibel Henriquez has two children in Rosemount: her son, who’s almost five, and her ten-month-old daughter. It was difficult for Henriquez to find a child care center where her son felt comfortable. At other childcare centers, he was very shy and wouldn’t speak.

Rosemount, she says, was different. The bilingual program felt “en casa” – like home. He started talking more and made friends.

“He’s in love here,” Henriquez says. “I can’t tell you exactly why, but he loves this place.”

Her son will be moving on to kindergarten, but Henriquez wants her daughter to continue to have the same friendly community. Henriquez also worries about what will happen to Rosemount staff, many of whom are seniors and have worked at Rosemount for 20 or more years.

For some parents, Rosemount is why they’re able to live in D.C. to begin with. Adam Koeppel has three children who are attending or have attended Rosemount. Koeppel says if Rosemount does close, he’ll probably move to Maryland or Virginia in the hopes of finding affordable childcare there.

The prospect of losing Rosemount is “tragic,” Koeppel says, especially when it serves so many people in need. It’s where his children became fluent Spanish speakers. It’s where they made their first friends, with whom they go to elementary school. And it drew him and other parents closer to the Mount Pleasant community.

Amanda Nogic, whose five-year-old and three-year-old are at Rosemount, says Mount Pleasant, with its diverse population – including many Latino residents – is a “rare neighborhood, where we have a wonderful mixing of cultures.”

“I’m wondering if this is the origin point of that,” she says.

Elizabeth Rihani’s two daughters attended Rosemount from 2005 to 2010.

“It has truly been the thing that has anchored D.C. as our daughters’ home town,” Rihani says.

Nogic worries about the families for whom moving is not an option. And she feels the House of Mercy hasn’t been fully transparent about why they have to close the center or acknowledge the impact it would have.

“I get very upset thinking about what could possibly happen to those families,” Nogic says. “Where are they going to go?”

The House of Mercy is currently a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and the oldest existing Episcopal charity in the Diocese of Washington, dating back to the late 1800s. For the past 20 years, the House of Mercy has enabled Rosemount to lease its current location essentially for free. Janet Stocks, the senior program officer at Rosemount, says she and her colleagues have been very appreciative of being able to stay there at such a low cost.

“We completely understood when they came to us and said when we renew the lease, we’re not going to be able to do it at a dollar a year,” Stocks says. “So we’ve given them several different proposals for how we could help them financially, and they have just said no to each of them. We have no idea what they’re planning to do with the building. They won’t discuss that with us.”

Stocks says they learned the lease could not be renewed at its current rate about a year ago. Since then, they’ve proposed paying off House of Mercy’s $2 million mortgage. They have also been looking for other locations in the community and seeking partnerships with local universities. So far, “nothing has worked out,” she says.

A spokesperson for House of Mercy’s Board of Directors said that the lease is “no longer sustainable” at just one dollar a year, and that it communicated this to Rosemount leadership two years ago, to “provide adequate time for them to secure a new location.” The spokesperson denied Rosemount leadership offered to pay the mortgage. (A spokesperson for Rosemount confirmed the proposal was made and that leadership learned one year ago, not two years).

The spokesperson for the Board did not specify any other financial challenges that made the board decide to end the lease, saying only that the rent was too low. They also expressed concern about any risks associated with the age of the building (the facility was built in 1911 but was modernized in 2005 at a cost of $6.3 million). It remains unclear what the board plans to do with the building, or whether it would support a city purchase of the building. (The spokesperson noted that at this time, no official offer has been made).

Dahlia Sokolov, whose child graduated from Rosemount last year, says House of Mercy needs to come to the table. Owning and supporting the school, she says, was the organization’s primary mission for the last 50 years.

“If they were really committed to that mission, they would be working with the community to find a way to make it financially sustainable,” Sokolov says.

Koeppel says closing the facility would be “unacceptable,” especially as discussions are underway in nearby Bancroft Elementary – which faces overcrowding – to remove Pre-K 3 and Pre-K 4.

“To see a charity organization that has helped facilitate this for so long just walk away and wash its hands of it, like what’s happening right now, is genuinely shocking,” Koeppel said. “I also fully expect the city government to step up and work on this problem hard and fast, because otherwise, what’s the point of having a government if we can’t fix problems like this quickly?”

Shortly after Rosemount announced its lease was being terminated, Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau sent a letter to Mayor Muriel Bowser asking that the city purchase the property from the Episcopal Diocese. She and Council Chairman Phil Mendelson are also introducing legislation this week that would give the mayor the authority to do so, and to acquire other properties to expand early childhood education facilities, including Bancroft Elementary (Nadeau is seeking to purchase a building at 16th Street and Park Road NW to accommodate more kindergarten classrooms).

“A scenario in which parents have to all of a sudden find new childcare is incredibly traumatic for them and the community,” Nadeau tells DCist/WAMU. “As someone who has two small kids who very recently were in a childcare setting, it is very difficult to find slots. To find slots for that many children all at once in our community will be nearly impossible.”

Finalizing such a process would depend on final approval of the budget, which wraps up in the spring. Nadeau says her legislation would accelerate that conversation so that the government could make a commitment to acquire that property ahead of budget discussion.

A spokesperson for Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn met with the Board’s chair in the hopes of keeping the center open.

“We hope to see a path forward where Rosemount can continue providing early childhood education and serving families, knowing the vital role it has played in the Mount Pleasant community for generations,” the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, parents are doing what they can to rally support from the community. They’ve been gathering thousands of signatures on a letter they sent to the House of Mercy’s board, asking them to reconsider terminating the lease. Stocks says businesses in the area are coming together to write a letter in support – their workers and businesses depend on centers like Rosemount. Over the weekend, families drew chalk art in front of the center. They read: “Save Rosemount,” “Don’t close our school,” and “Dear Rosemount teachers and staff, we love you and are fighting for you.”

Liz Sokolov’s children attended Rosemount years ago. They’re now teenagers, but she’s kept in touch with the teachers all these years.

“The loss is so palpable,” she says. When she was out on Monday collecting signatures, she met some of the Rosemount teachers. “They came out and hugged me and cried and signed their names. It’s a loss for the children. It’s a loss for these dedicated educators,” Sokolov says. “They put their hearts into this place.”

The children sense that loss. Magidson says it’s always on her four-year old’s mind.

“Each morning she’s woken up and she’s said, ‘how can we fight today? What can we do to support the school?’” Magidson says. “She just turned four and she’s fighting so hard.”