The state Department of Social Services is seeking to shut down a popular Montessori day care facility and preschool and to bar two key administrators for life from any facility the state licenses.

The various licensing allegations have prompted parents to pull their children from Sacramento Montessori School at 12th and D streets downtown in what one parent described as rampant paranoia.

An attorney for the school says the state's actions stem from minor licensing violations that do not warrant such drastic action.

The state contends the school was repeatedly warned its enrollment was over licensing capacity and had a host of other violations spanning several years. In addition, the Department of Social Services alleges two administrators – Antonia Lopez and Marilyn Prosser – interfered with their investigation.

"This is so over the top," said Mark Merin, a Sacramento civil rights attorney retained by the Montessori school. "I'm really looking forward to getting to a hearing on this."

An administrative hearing previously scheduled for Thursday and today was postponed until 2012, said Merin. The issue will be heard by a state administrative law judge.

The state's complaint depicts the school as habitually exceeding its licensed capacity for enrollment, including in one case by having 18 more children than permitted. Until September 2008, the state said, the school had hired nine teachers for its infant room who had not taken a required infant care class.

Kids were routinely left unsupervised and, in one case, two preschool-age boys played unsupervised on an outdoor second story deck, according to the state complaint.

The state also alleges that a teacher and a worker both had not received required criminal clearances.

The teacher, Susan Turof, told The Bee that she had a criminal record clearance on file in Nevada County and that she did not supervise children at the Montessori school while she was waiting on her clearance in Sacramento.

Another worker, Jose Figueroa, who the school says worked part time as a janitor and in the kitchen, also did not have a criminal clearance from Dec. 27, 2010 to Feb. 1, 2011. The state complaint alleges Figueroa was fired in February "in retaliation for his cooperation with the Department's investigation."

School officials say Figueroa did not need a criminal clearance because he was on-site for less than 16 hours per week and did not have unsupervised contact with children, which are two exemptions under the law.

Figueroa's employment at the school has factored into the state's case against Lopez, who is the school's president, and Prosser, a volunteer administrator. The state alleges that the two "provided or permitted, false or misleading information to be reported to the Department regarding Jose Figueroa's employment status."

The state is seeking to bar Lopez and Prosser for life from operating, visiting or being in contact with a state licensed day care operation or any other facility licensed by the state.

"I think licensing is being very unfair with the way they are coming after the school and what they are seeking," said Maura de la Rosa, a public defender for Sacramento County, whose 4-year-old triplets attend the school. "I find the whole situation feels like harassment … . The school has had a fantastic reputation for many years."

Sacramento Montessori School has been lauded for its facilities, including its historic building and lush garden tucked into the inner-city neighborhood of Alkali Flat. An on-site chef cooks organic food from scratch; the school uses cloth diapers and parents pay on the high-end for local day care facilities – between $828 to $1,143 a month depending on the child's age.

Previously wait-listed, the school's enrollment is now down.

Steve Blackledge pulled his child out of the school in June because administrators did not notify him of the state's probe.

"It's a great facility with some wonderful teachers, but when our kid was there, they just couldn't seem to get their act together administratively," he said.

De la Rosa, a member of the parent advisory group, said the state complaint has created paranoia among parents, who pulled their kids from the school in fear that it would be closed.

"If (DSS) doesn't get the school shut down over these allegations, then they will shut it down because it will go bankrupt," de la Rosa said.

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

Call The Bee's Melody Gutierrez, (916) 326-5521. Follow her on Twitter @MelodyGutierrez.

• Read more articles by Melody Gutierrez