COASTAL OBSERVER

The Pawleys Island Child Development Center and its grounds are usually full of the sounds of young children playing and learning. 

But the facility on Parkersville Road has been eerily silent since April 24 when its doors closed, possibly forever.

“It was like a slap in the face to all the sacrifice that we did in trying to keep the building open for the kids in the community,” said Tera Marshall, who has been director of the center since the end of 2021.

Marshall grew up in Pawleys Island and was a student at the center, which had been operating for more than 50 years, until this week.

The center’s board of directors met on April 22 and decided to close the center. The last day was scheduled to be April 30. 

Marshall got the news on April 23. She said she was “mad” and “hurt,” so she called one of the board members.

“I was yelling and crying. She couldn’t even understand me,” Marshall said. “And then I just hung up because I was like, do you even understand what this means? This affects the workforce and this affect families.”

When the center’s staff found out, and then didn’t get a paycheck on April 24, they all went home with no plans to come back. Marshall doesn’t blame the teachers because, she said, it was not the first time the staff of four full-time employees and two part-timers didn’t get paid.

“We had sacrificed all this time and put our heart and our soul, tears and everything else into being here for the kids and parents in this community,” she added.

In the past, Marshall said, teachers had continued working even when they weren’t getting paid regularly.

“We were still showing up for work, were still dedicated,” she added. “We love our kids. We love each other. They didn’t want to let me down.”

In order to keep the center open until April 30, Marshall would have to work there by herself. She told the board the center would close at the end of the day on April 24.

“They weren’t happy about it, but what was I going to do,” she said.

As parents and guardians arrived to pick up their children that afternoon, Marshall handed them a letter from the board about the closure.

Some were numb, she said. Many reached out to her last weekend to ask her what other child care options there are in the area. 

“I was emotionally drained,” she said.

The center’s tuition is $80 a week. Marshall doesn’t know of any other facility in that price range, although the Montessori School of Pawleys Island and child care centers in Georgetown and Andrews reached out to her about openings in their programs when news of the closure spread.

“It’s heartbreaking,” she said. “It won’t sound like a lot of money to some people … but it’s a lot of money to a lot of people with prices on everything else skyrocketing.”

Before it closed, 36 children were enrolled. The center accepted kids as young as six weeks and as old a 4 years.  

Marshall said she and the staff were aware that the school was having financial problems.

“But we were have been working through them,” she added.

According to the IRS, the center had a total revenue of $593,000 in 2023, with a surplus of $104,000. The next year, revenue decreased to $368,000, and there was a loss of $174,000.

The tax records show the center had $291,000 in assets in 2024.

Marshall said the board knew since last summer that the center was running low on funds.

“They dropped the ball. It was like nothing,” she added. “They did a little bit, but it wasn’t enough.”

The center remains one of the nonprofits raising money in Palmetto Giving Day, a 36-hour online fundraising event that starts Tuesday.

“We knew Palmetto Giving Day was coming and we were going to have a big push,” Marshall said.

It is unclear what the board will do with the money donated to the center.

This week Marshall and a few of her staff members have been at the center packing all the remnants of the program into boxes. The building needs to be cleared out by May 15.

“We’re trying to make sure we leave it in a good state,” she said. 

Vincent Davis, who is chairman of both the center’s board and the board of the Pawleys Island Civic Club, which owns the building, declined to comment.