MIAMI (WSVN) - It was a shock for students who headed back to class after their winter break ended. Their school was suddenly shut down, and now, parents are demanding answers.
The Allapattah Wynwood School located at 1500 NW 16th Ave. was completely shut down, Monday.
7News cameras captured students and their parents protesting outside the school with students chanting “open the school.”
“We couldn’t go to school and my mom couldn’t go to work,” said Jaycon Nadal, a student at the school.
The family-run private school has been in Wynwood for 30 years.
7News was told that a dispute within the family has left these children with no place to go.
Parents received a letter in December from an attorney representing the executive director of the school, which explained that former employees withheld passwords for computer systems, and that is part of what is keeping the school from operating.
The letter explained, “Negotiations to have the prior employees surrender the proprietary information is ongoing.”
The letter also stated that the school is closed until further notice, “Due to the missing information and investigations being conducted by several different governmental agencies.”
There is also a lawsuit with the executive director suing his own children, accusing them of trying to take over the operation.
Parents are now fuming, as they have no place to send their children to school.
“As you can see, they are all dressed, ready to go to school, they want to go to school, they want to learn,” said Jennifer Hernandez, a parent. “However, because of a family dispute, we don’t know what’s going on. They close the school from one day to the next, and our kids are left out in the air. They don’t have transfers in order to go to another school.”
“They have no vacancies, no other schools to go to because every school is full, and they’re concerned about that, and it’s in mid-year, and schools are full,” said Herbert Fonseca, former assistant principal at the school. “They are concerned about their education. Parents have to go back to work, and I understand all that. My hands are tied. I wish I could open the door right now, but I can’t.”
Fonseca, along with several other family members, was fired from the school back in December. He is the son of the executive director of the school.
Now, about 150 students are without a place to learn.
After leaving the school, the parents went to the office of the attorney for the school, but he wasn’t able to see them. They then went to the Miami-Dade County Public School System offices where the superintendent of schools said he will be able to help those children.
“We’re gonna get their beautiful children in school right away,” said Dr. Jose L. Dotres, the superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools.
He met with the parents and said there is a plan in place to get the children into school by Tuesday morning.
“We want these children in school,” he said. “Our school district welcomes all students … and we’re good to go. They’ll be in school.”
While parents said they are thankful their kids will now at least have a school to go to, some tell us the transition will be difficult.
“If they can reopen that will be the best-case scenario for the kids,” said a parent.
The school and their attorney did not respond to calls from 7News.
There is also a daycare associated with this school. It has apparently not been affected.
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