Alvernia University's Montessori School in Pennsylvania will shut its doors after more than four decades of providing early education services for local families, The Reading Eagle reported.

A letter announcing closure of the preschool and kindergarten program taught by the Bernardine Franciscan Sisters went out to parents last week. The school will officially close at the end of the current semester on June 1.

University officials said the closing of the early education program is a result of several factors, including the surfacing of other quality preschool and kindergarten options in the area, declining enrollment and rising costs that made the program a "losing proposition," The Reading Eagle reported.

This year there are only 34 students enrolled in the program. Twenty-seven of those students are in the preschool and seven in kindergarten. Parents pay about $4,000 for the Montessori preschool program and $5,200 for kindergarten.

"With many other choices for parents today, what started as a well-intentioned community service is no longer in need by most families, as it was in bygone days," Shirley Williams, Alvernia University's provost, said in a prepared statement.

The closing of the program comes as a shock to many, especially parents with children enrolled in the program.

Craig Berry, whose 5-year-old son started the program in fall, of Sinking Spring told The Reading Eagle the closing of the Montessori school is a "shame."

"We were kind of stunned because this was what we really wanted for our son and it was such short notice," Berry said.

He added that despite the emergence of other preschool and kindergarten options in the area there is no other program like the one offered by the Bernardine sisters. He said that his son is already reading at a second-grade reading level after only five months at the school.

"It's sad because our kids got a liking to the sisters," he said. "It's not like a teacher-student relationship. It turned into a little family."

Since its inception, the Montessori School has established "clear and rigorous educational outcomes that enhance student learning and impact long-term behaviors," according to the program's Website. Its alumni includes country superstar Taylor Swift, who grew up in Wyomissing, went to Montessori for preschool and kindergarten from 1994 to 1996.