Parents in limbo after Saskatoon Montessori school closes suddenly amid allegations of unpaid teachers
Rebecca Ehlert first heard that Wild Spirit Education private school in Saskatoon would be closing from her five-year-old daughter.
Last Friday, "she got in the car and said, 'I'm never coming back to this school, my teacher is never coming back,'" said Ehlert. "I was extremely confused."
Ehlert said she went into the school and was told by a teacher that there were no active teachers anymore.
According to its website, Wild Spirit Education was a Montessori School that offered a toddler program, a preschool and kindergarten to Grade 10 classes.
Wild Spirit was a registered independent school and not funded by the Ministry of Education.
On the weekend, the school's director, Christa Nelson, sent a memo via a child care app used to communicate with parents.
"Due to recent events and malicious harassment, I have been forced to make the hard decision to close effective immediately for the safety of all of our students and my own family," Nelson wrote to parents in the message, obtained by CBC News.
Christa Nelson, the school's director, messaged parents about the closure over the weekend, after several messages about changes to how the school would function in the coming months. (Chanss Lagaden/CBC)
"There are many stories circulating [in] our community about the school, the type of person I am, and how I treat people," she wrote in another message.
Ehlert said her daughter attended the school for about three months. She paid about $1,200 in tuition for all of June, but her daughter hasn't been to school since the closure. Ehlert said she hasn't been reimbursed.
Now left searching for child care, Ehlert said she's finding wait lists are "absolutely insane."
"We have no alternative — so many of us working parents. We're struggling day to day now."
Ehlert said some of her daughter's items are still locked inside the school, but she has not been able to contact Nelson.
Staff file claim for missing wages
In an email, the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety said it has received claims from employees at Wild Spirit Education for unpaid wages and is investigating.
It said there were claims made against the school in 2021 that have been resolved, but would not provide the results of those claims. It also said there were a total of 15 claims from 2023 and 2024 that are unresolved. Wild Spirit has not been prosecuted under the Saskatchewan Employment Act for the resolved claims, the ministry said.
It's a lot of money, and it was also a lot of emotional investment and also just stress. - Ella Hagen, former Wild Spirit educator
Nelson responded to CBC's request for an interview with a text message from a phone number listed on the school website.
The message said she is "working closely with the ministry to ensure that all claims filed are accurate and taken care of."
She did not clarify which ministry she was referring to in the message.
In emails to staff in December and January shared with CBC News, Nelson spoke about the financial stress facing the school. She also committed to compensating those included in the email with the funds they earned by early February.
Nelson has previously been recognized for her work in the community, including by CBC.
Overlooked pay issue for students: EA
Jamie Cleveland worked under Nelson for nine years: two years with a different business, and then with Wild Spirit Education when it opened in 2017.
Cleveland, an educational assistant at the school, said she was financially stable enough to stay on at the school, despite problems with payment.
"I was able to kind of overlook the late payments and all that, and stay for the kids and some stability. There had been a lot of turnover," Cleveland said.
"That's what kept us there for more than a month, or anybody there for more than a month, is because you love those kids."
Cleveland isn't sure how much money she is owed, but said it's several thousand dollars. She said she was let go from her position in March after an argument with Nelson about staff issues, like pay and how staff were being treated.
Jamie Cleveland, a former educational assistant at Wild Spirit, said she remained at the school because she wanted to maintain stability for students. (Don Somers/CBC)
Ella Hagen worked for Wild Spirit as a classroom assistant in the summer of 2021, and again from the fall of 2023 to January 2024. She said she was paid late during her first stint and estimates she's still waiting on nearly $5,000 from her second stretch.
She believes the total missing pay for all staff is more than $40,000.
"It's a lot of money, and it was also a lot of emotional investment and also just stress," Hagen said.
A GoFundMe was started for the teachers.
Hagen said she spoke with Nelson multiple times about being paid.
"Whenever we contacted, we were very comforted by her — you know, 'Oh, I'm just waiting on a couple payments from parents, just waiting for things to go through,'" Hagen said.
"All of us as staff tried to act with the most compassion we could and gave a lot of leeway, and were just very patient with waiting. But besides that we didn't really get any proactive answers."
Hagen said the biggest issue is that the students have "suffered a lot" from the situation, including that constant turnover.
"It meant the kids didn't really have the stability they needed to, I think, get the quality of education they deserved."
