Casa dei Bambini to close in June

Press release from Casa dei Bambini: 

After almost 15 years, Casa dei Bambini, a bilingual preschool in West Asheville, announced on Saturday that they will be closing at the end of June.

Casa began as an idea conceived while owners, Stephanie Crawford and David Wilson, were in graduate school in 1996. The just-married pair moved to Asheville from Atlanta in 1999 to establish their new home and open a Montessori school.

Things didn’t happen as swiftly as they had hoped. Stephanie took her first teaching position at Isaac Dickson Elementary and then a research associate position at locally based Orleana Hawks Puckett Institute, which conducts early childhood research. Plans were delayed when David was suddenly placed on the liver transplant list at Duke University Medical Hospital due to a previously dormant genetic liver disorder, oddly enough named “Wilson’s Disease.” Three years later, David successfully received his liver transplant and a few months after that the couple welcomed their first child.

Less than two years later, they licensed Casa dei Bambini (named after Maria Montessori’s first school in Italy) in their home in Malvern Hills. Inspired by previous training, right away they located and hired their first native Spanish-speaking teaching assistant and began their successful dual-language immersion preschool approach.

One year later, in 2004, Stephanie found their new location, 818 Haywood Road, in what was the North Carolina School of Natural Healing. Stephanie says, “The stars aligned, we got lucky and everything happened pretty quickly. I was finishing my business class at what is now Mountain Biz Works, happened upon the ‘For Sale By Owner’ sign and the rest is history”.

Regarding their recent difficult decision, Stephanie says, “It is such a hard thing to close. This has been our life’s work, and we enjoy what we do here daily. We adore the people we work with and the warm, caring work environment and school community we’ve co-created for all of us. Casa is thriving now, more than ever, and our popularity, paired with our area’s critical shortage in childcare placement for people under three, have us turning away five or more families per week and placing them on a waiting list. Additionally, several Casa teachers who have been with us for 10+ years are retiring. We decided to follow them. We aim to spend more time with our teenage daughter and take her to Spain and South American to nurture our Spanish language beyond classroom proficiency.”

Stephanie goes on to say, “The neighborhood received our school culture and concept very well. Our dream school has been both beautiful and sustaining to our own family, as well as to countless other families. We are so proud of all that we have achieved and how we have learned and grown. It’s been a long and winding road, and we remain forever grateful for each and every Casa family. We would like to give a special shout-out to all of our first Casa families – you know who you are! All of our people, our amazing Casa staff, past and present, and Casa families have fed our souls, made it all worth the while and kept us going through every endeavor”.

Although Casa’s owners are currently working with parents and area educators to consider all options for possible continuation of a neighborhood preschool, the Haywood Road Corridor property zoned HR-3 (commercial three-story approved ), may be for sale in the near future.