The Manchester Enterprise
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Preschool moves
By Alana West, Special Writer
PUBLISHED: April 12, 2007
Manchester Co-op Preschool has a new address for the first time in its 43-year existence.
Advertisement
Its new home is located at the Nellie Ackerson Building on City Road in the rooms that formerly housed the fitness facility Curves.
The preschool program began in 1964 in the basement of Manchester's Emanuel United Church of Christ.
"I want (people at) Emanuel to know that we appreciated the use of their space," said Jacki Bonner, publicity chairwoman at the preschool. "We want this to be a positive thing."
Bonner said advantages of the move include closer proximity to other early childhood programs in the building, such as day care, where children could easily attend following their preschool session, and the First Steps program, a playgroup for preschool-age children.
Bonner also said that the new rooms offer slightly more square footage in the classrooms.
An open house for the new preschool classrooms will be held Tuesday.
There are other preschool programs housed at the Nellie Ackerson Building that operate through Director Sue Colvia's Manchester Early Childhood Daycare and Preschool Center offices. There were some concerns voiced by early childhood preschool workers at a November school board meeting that the co-op preschool would compete with the programs.
A school board committee looked into the concerns in December, and determined that renting the space was in the best interest of the school district, which is in the middle of a budget crisis.
It also was decided that the co-op preschool's program differed enough from the other preschool programs as to afford little competition. The co-op program is unique in that parents are involved in fund-raising for the program, as well as committed to volunteering to work in the classroom every month.
Monthly fees for the co-op are $75 for 4-year-olds for three sessions a week, and $65 for 3-year-olds for two sessions a week.
The school board voted to allow the co-op preschool to rent the former Curves space for $500 a month for nine months of the year, the same rent charged by Emanuel United Church of Christ.
This year, there are 37 preschoolers in three separate classes.
The first preschool class at Emanuel included five children. The names of the preschool's founding families are recorded, and include Roger Marrison, Russell and Delores Wolff, Dick Kuntz, Titus and Betty Schneider, and James Scott.
Delores Wolff was the first teacher employed by the program.
By September, the class had grown to 12, a combination of 3- to 4-year-olds. They paid $8 a month, and parents volunteered their time in the classroom.
"The moms wanted to get together -- wanted something for their kids," Bonner said.
The preschool also offers a scholarship for students with a financial hardship. The scholarship program was launched in 1970 with memorial funds donated after then-preschool student Amy Haeussler and a mother, Lynn Schill, and her three children were killed in two unrelated automobile accidents, Bonner said.
Haeussler was the sister of preschool teacher Jennifer Brewer.
Other funds have been made available for the preschool through a charitable program run by Sula Jeffers in Manchester.
Not all stories are guaranteed to appear
online. The Web edition contains a reasonable
sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to
subscribe
to the print edition of the paper.
TOP JOBS
