Report: Love A Lot Pre-School Shutters Amid Allegations, Investigations While Parents Scramble

For residents and business owners on Clinton and Suffolk streets near Delancey, parades of small children coming and going from Love A Lot Pre-School were a regular scene of street life.

But these days, the toddler processions have ceased and the school’s two locations one block apart sit empty and locked. Love A Lot closed its 21 Clinton St. location in July, and state regulators subsequently shut down the original location at 99 Suffolk St. last month. Officials from the health and labor departments are investigating, while parents and teachers are suing for tuition refunds and back pay.

The Local East Village, a joint NYU/New York Times journalism project, documented the troubled school’s decline in an exhaustive investigative piece late last week.

According to the story:

[On Oct. 5], the Department of Health revoked Love A Lot’s operating permit, citing “lack of an educational director, inability to provide documentation of staff medical records, and failure to screen staff,” according to a spokeswoman. Previously, the [Suffolk Street] location had been cited by city health inspectors for a variety of violations, including not having a staff member trained in CPR on site, lack of working fire and carbon monoxide alarms, and problems with hot and cold water — all of which were resolved, according to the spokeswoman.

The story, by reporter Stephen Rex Brown, details ongoing litigation and predicts there is more pending.

The owner of Love A Lot, Olga Bosio, is named in two lawsuits, one from a former teacher seeking $6,500 in back wages, and another from former parents seeking $10,500 for tuition paid up front, as well as deposits for the school year.

In addition to the teacher that filed the lawsuit, five others told the Local they are owed $16,500 in unpaid wages. And another parent said he lost a $5,000 deposit for the upcoming school year.

To top it off, an ex-employee of the preschool who is familiar with its finances said that the grand total in unpaid payroll taxes, back wages, arrears, and deposits owed to parents is around $300,000. The ex-employee did not wish to be named because of ongoing litigation and other financial wrangling. Ms. Bosio described the figures as “a lie” and completely inaccurate. “I owe three or four teachers some money,” she said.

Bosio, who opened the school in 2005 after operating a daycare by the same name uptown for two decades, has not responded to inquiries from The Lo-Down.