JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville father says he was stunned to discover his children’s daycare and preschool had been condemned by the City of Jacksonville and slated for demolition without any notice to parents.

Vernon Williams says his family had enrolled two of their children at Little Wise Kids Preschool last year after what he described as a positive experience, praising the staff and small class sizes. 

“The staff was really nice, and they seemed to do a really good job, easy to work with,” he said. While communication from the school was “always a bit lacking,” Williams says nothing prepared them for what happened this month.

His family expected to start the school year a few days late, so they called the school days in advance to give them a heads up. However, after days of calling with no answer, Williams’ wife drove to the school and found multiple city notices posted on the doors declaring the site “not safe for human habitation” and scheduled for demolition. 

“It’s shocking,” Williams said. “I mean, our kid was just there for a year, a few months ago. No texts, no calls, no emails, no nothing.”

Public records show the daycare was previously shut down by the city in 2018. 

Ron Taylor, a city inspector for Jax EPICS, said the school is “extremely unsafe.”

“Several of the trusses that support the roof are broken and the building can and will collapse. Also, none of the windows are able to be opened and parts of the foundation have failed. The new owners are not addressing any of these issues, and are in the process of opening a day care center.”

He emphasized, “This building is unsafe for human habitation. This must be stopped.”

Now, according to the multiple signs posted on the school’s front door dated July 23, 2025, Little Wise Kids Preschool is shut down and subject to demolition. Notices state the “human habitation prohibited,” and the building is violating multiple fire codes, according to the Jacksonville Fire Marshall’s notes.

Despite that, Williams says the school’s website, social media and app remain active with no mention of the closure. The only message he received was a generic text from what appeared to be an enrollment service, saying the facility hoped to reopen in September.

The closure has left many families scrambling for alternatives at the start of the school year. Williams says the problem is compounded by state-funded Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) vouchers, which are tied to a specific school and require a lengthy process to reassign. 

“A lot of single parents utilize that facility; it makes it 10 times harder for them,” he said.

Williams says the lack of transparency has shattered his trust. 

“The very least is communication,” he said. “I don’t think I could ever trust my kids to go back to a place that didn’t have the decency to let us know or keep us in the loop.”

As of publication, the daycare and city have not responded to First Coast News’  request for comment.