Students at a Uniondale school said their last goodbyes to their place of learning before it was supposed to close Friday.

The PatKam School and Early Education Center was forced to close due to a multitude of problems including financial issues, high property taxes and low enrollment.

Principal and founder Ron Clahar says only 20 students now attend the school. He says a new charter school that opened in Uniondale in September was one reason for the drop in enrollment.

Clahar says many parents could no longer afford the tuition of nearly $750 per month. The school now is owed thousands in unpaid tuition.

"It is my life, my wife and I put everything we have into this school," says Clahar.

Parents will now have to find a new school for their children during the middle of the school year.

"(I will) somehow ease him into it the best I can," says Carlton Hawkins, parent of a 4-year-old son at the school. "But it’s got to be traumatic just to change just like that."

Some parents say they are holding out hope that a miracle of some sort will keep the school open. They have started a GoFundMe page in hopes of keeping the school operating.