WeFlunked. WeGrow — the pricey Manhattan school operated by WeWork that offers meditation sessions, Danish furniture designs and weekly trips to a farm in Westchester — is shuttering at the end of the school year. WeWork parent We Co. — whose executives are slashing costs after a failed attempt to take the company public that has left it in a cash crunch — said in a statement it will continue to operate WeGrow through the 2019-2020 school year. The swanky day care and elementary school, which charges up to $42,000 a year, offers daily Beatles singalongs for parents and children, Hebrew and Mandarin language courses and robotics and engineering classes. Located on a posh block in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood around the corner from the Rubin Museum of Art, WeGrow bills itself as a “conscious entrepreneurial school.” It was founded by Rebekah Neumann, wife of ousted WeWork Chief Executive Adam Neumann. “These children come into the world, they are very evolved, they are very special. They’re spiritual,” Rebekah Neumann told Fast Company when the school opened last year. “They’re all natural entrepreneurs, natural humanitarians, and then it seems like we squash it all out of them in the education system.” Last week, parents picking up their children outside the WeGrow elementary school expressed hope that it would continue to stay open but said they had not received much information from administrators. We said in its Friday statement that “WeWork and the families of WeGrow students are engaging in discussions with interested parties regarding plans for WeGrow for the following school year.”
The We Company has announced plans to close WeGrow, its elementary school in Manhattan’s Chelsea district. The school, whose fees are as much as $42,000 a year, will close at the end of the 2019/20 school year.