Little Learners foreclosure upsets parents, staff

GAINESVILLE - There were no children Tuesday at Little Learners Academy, a private school for infant through pre-K children on Dawsonville Highway in Gainesville, according to staff members who went there early in the morning to open the school and found no students.

The school building went on the foreclosure auction block at the Hall County Courthouse as parents and staff looked on to see what would happen next. It's frustrating, it's disappointing, and confusing to the little children who went there and liked it there, according to one parent.

Brooke Bennett said it took a week to find another facility for her five-year- old son after she found out the school was under foreclosure.

"The owner has not even told them it was under foreclosure or anything," Bennett said. "There are a lot of parents completely ticked off about it."

School Director Malissa Lincoln said out-of-town owner Steve Koepsell of Marietta kept silent about the foreclosure. Staff members and parents found out when they first saw a notice published in the Gainesville Times classified ad section about three weeks ago.

Lincoln and other Little Learners staff members attended Tuesday's auction, hoping to learn the fate of their facility. With word of the foreclosure, Lincoln said parents did not bring children to school.

"No children showed up," she said. "Since it was listed in the paper to foreclose today I guess children thought there would be no school."

Lincoln said just over 100 children attended Little Learners, which also provided an after school program. Lincoln said the school's Pre-K teaching positions were state funded.

"Nobody knows what they're going to do for an occupation," she added. "Nobody really knows what they're going to do for child care."

Cassy Dunigan had a dual role at Little Learners. She was both a parent and a staff member. She stood in Kenyan Plaza along with the other staff members and parents, some of whom brought their children in strollers.

"It's frustrating because she has her little friends at school," Dunigan said of her 10-month-old daughter Brielle. "We have our routine down, I love my work and she loves going to school and I like having her there with me."

Dunigan hopes someone buys the property, reopens the school and she and the other staff members can continue working at a new Little Learners. As for the owner of the old Little Learners, Dunigan said he did not show respect.

"It makes it hard," she said. "We feel disrespected."

Koepsell has not responded to AccessNorthGa.com's attempts to contact him.