Rosemount parents remain in the dark about Mount Pleasant preschool’s future
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at the Mount Pleasant Farmer’s Market
(Photos by Karolina Montalvo)
As the fall comes to a close, uncertainty lingers over the future of the Rosemount Center, one of D.C.’s oldest bilingual preschools.
Last spring, about 200 Mount Pleasant community members took to the streets to protest the imminent closure of the long-running preschool, known for its bilingual education and social services. Chanting in English and Spanish, teachers held yellow roses, and parents held their children, who raised brightly-colored posters.
In April, a few weeks after the march, Rosemount and its landlord, the Episcopalian nonprofit House of Mercy, announced a two-year extension of the Mount Pleasant school’s lease. But the new lease will end on Aug. 31, 2026, and so far there’s no guarantee that Rosemount will continue operating once it expires.
William Gwinner, a former Rosemount parent who was heavily involved in the group last spring, says that the advocacy group Save Rosemount D.C. has been inactive since the lease extension announcement as its members await more information about the center’s fundraising plans to buy the property. He says the community feels “frustrated” with Rosemount’s lack of communication.
“They’re pretty close-mouthed,” says Gwinner.
House of Mercy founded Rosemount in 1972 as an early childhood development and daycare center. The same building had previously served unwed mothers and their babies. The terms of the recent lease extension stipulate that Rosemount Center has until March 2026 to buy the property “at an agreed upon price.”
Reaching the extension agreement took months of negotiations between the center and House of Mercy, during which time parents, faculty and staff, volunteers and Mount Pleasant community leaders banded together, determined to save Rosemount from closure. Save Rosemount D.C. grew to over 400 members, according to Berenice Pernalete, a former Rosemount parent.
“We’ve been able to really put all of [Save Rosemount D.C.’s] energy into an active effort that has yielded a group planning a rally, a group trying to contact folks from the government and see if there’s a way to get support from them,” says Pernalete. “It’s been wonderful to see the community engagement. Even though it has been sort of impromptu, we have been able to organize ourselves really efficiently.”
The group formed as a response to the center’s announcement in February 2024 that they would close its current location on 2000 Rosemount Avenue NW later that August. According to a statement from the board of House of Mercy to The Washington Post, Rosemount’s lease of one dollar per year was “no longer sustainable.”
With federal grants from programs like Early Head Start, Rosemount provides students with early childhood education and family support services. The center’s 2023 annual report said 58 percent of children enrolled at Rosemount come from households below the federal poverty line, and about 83 percent represent Latino, Black, Asian and multicultural backgrounds.
“Even if they were to find a different location, they wouldn’t be serving this community,” says Pernalete. “The Rosemount Center is really easy to break, but it’s really hard to build back up.”
The neighborhood was one of the District’s historic Latine hubs in the 1970s when Rosemount first opened. Despite rising housing costs that have pushed many Latine residents out to the suburbs and more economical D.C. neighborhoods, about 44 percent of Mount Pleasant residents are Latine, according to the 2020 United States Census.
Through WhatsApp chats and occasional meetings at members’ houses, Save Rosemount D.C. coordinated their actions, which included securing pledges and commitments from potential donors and organizing a rally called La Marcha Por Rosemount (“March for Rosemount” in Spanish). The group collected about 1,200 signatures on a petition addressed to the House of Mercy.
After the new lease deal was struck, Rosemount Center President and CEO Jacques Rondeau and COO Martha Johnson sent an email last August to parents expressing gratitude for their community’s involvement to save the center. The email also said that parents will hear more from them in the coming months about their fundraising efforts.
“You make Rosemount special, and we’re committed to keeping you updated and involved as we move forward,” says the email.
But Abra Lyons-Warren, a parent whose daughter finished preschool at Rosemount last spring and who has been involved in Save Rosemount D.C., says that since the email was sent out, there has not been word from Rosemount leadership about their fundraising plans.
“I don’t think a lot of people have really heard from the CEO otherwise, so I sincerely hope that this is the path they’re pursuing, as he states in his letter,” says Lyons-Warren.
Gwinner says that he thinks Rosemount’s board has not been receptive to possible solutions proposed by Save Rosemount D.C., such as applying to receive funds from the Office of Head Start for building renovations or becoming a charter school.
“They have their own way of doing things, and they’ve shown no interest — in my experience — in having us help them with fundraising,” says Gwinner. “We got pledges as a way to reach out to management and say, ‘Look, we’re here to help,’ and they’ve never responded in any way to say they want that help.”
He says that as much as the community wanted to save the center, the group could only raise pledges because they did not have the legal status to accept donations since the group is not a tax-exempt nonprofit organization.
“We got a quick response from the community, a widespread willingness to donate [but also] continued skepticism from a lot of people about what they’re donating for,” says Gwinner.
Neither Rosemount nor House of Mercy responded to requests for comment. According to Lyons-Warren, the center has asked Save Rosemount D.C. to hold off on fundraising “until the school can finish planning and launch a capital campaign.”
“What I can tell you is that we believe with a capital campaign and a grant from Head Start, purchasing the building is very achievable,” writes Lyons-Warren in an email.
Jessica Magidson, a Rosemount parent with two daughters (ages two and four), says she hopes the center will “stay on the radar” of the city and Rosemount’s long-standing program partners.
“I know that Rosemount Center leadership is working hard to plan the normal events as well as some other fundraising efforts,” says Magidson. “I hope that as we move into the next phase of planning, families can come together and work with leadership to support Rosemount staying open.”
When asked if she plans on transferring her daughters to another school if it appears that the center cannot purchase the current property before March 2026, Magidson said her family remains “really committed” to Rosemount.
“I don’t think or hope that the lease will actually end in August 2026. I want to keep supporting the school in every way possible so that it stays open beyond [the deadline],” says Magidson.
– Story and photos by Karolina Montalvo
– Copy edited by Matthew Macgugan and Michelle Benitez
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