Suttons Bay school officials had planned on offering a preschool program this fall.

Now, they’re expediting the plans in light of the closure of a day care facility south of the village.

Parents at the Sandbox Academy received notice June 1 that the facility would be closing effective June 15 after three years of operation. Forty children attend the day care facility, which employs eight.

“As a grandparent of a child who attends the Sandbox Academy, I know how much it alleviated panic to have the school step in,” board Trustee Sue Corbin said at Monday night’s monthly board meeting. “It’s difficult for working parents to find child care with two weeks notice.”

After consulting with school readiness coordinator Allison Manning, preschool Title I coordinator Michelle Couturier and elementary principal Roger Arvo, the group agreed to open the school to take day care students for the summer.

Murray, Manning and Arvo met with a group of parents last week, and again Monday night, to introduce the option of day care at the school to start to determine which families would be participating.

“They were visibly relieved,” Murray said. “They won’t have to be scrambling for child care.”

The superintendent explained that the traditional school structure is based on a model in which one parent, usually a mother, stays at home with a child until age 5 or 6 when they enter school.

“That’s not the case these days,” Murray explained.

According to the Center for Policy Alternatives, 63 percent of mothers of small children and 78 percent of mothers of school-aged children work outside the home.

A lack of child care during the summer months, when school is not in session, presents and even bigger problem for parents.

“It brings to a head, the role of child care in the community. It’s a big issue with families,” Murray said.

School staff were scrambling this week to ready five classrooms that had already been designated for children ages 3 to 4, 4 and “young” 5-year-olds.

Inspections by the Department of Human Services are being hastened to ensure that licensing requirements will be met by next week. Murray said he’s hopeful the preschool will be able to serve 30 children, using staff members from Sandbox Academy who have been offered work for the summer.

“They’ve been offered positions,” the superintendent said. “We know how children form an attachment to people rather than places. If they see a familiar face, it will help with the transition.”

Arvo said Monday that he wasn’t sure how many families would be participating in the day care program this summer. But he was hopeful that there would be enough enrolled to “break even” this summer, allowing parents time to examine other alternatives.

“We’re moving down another layer age-wise. But it’s important to help families with children,” Murray said.

Elsewhere in the school this summer, classrooms will be occupied by migrant students from as young as two weeks to high school.

The board voted unanimously to renew its contract with the Northwestern Michigan Migrant Project, which leases space from the school, through Aug. 30. The migrant program serves children from age 3 or 4 to high school. The contract covers the lease of 10 rooms, utilities, transportation; custodial services and supplies. This arrangement has continued most years since the 1970s.

Telemon, another program for the seasonal migrant program, focuses on infants through kindergarten age.

“Sharing this space is part of the school being a community center,” Murray said.