A new home

Michele Marr

Chanie Perelmuter, director of The Hebrew Academy Preschool in

Huntington Beach, approached the school’s administrators and asked

them to do a little remodeling.

What she got was a new campus.

The preschool, originally founded in 1969, moved to its present

location 24 years ago. Its new facilities were modern, for the time,

and spacious.

When Perelmuter came to the preschool as a teacher in 1987, the

campus still seemed nearly new. But by the time she became the

director of the preschool nine years later, many of the campus’

fixtures and furnishings were showing their age, and enrollment had

pushed its space to its limits.

The fixtures and furnishing still worked, but the shortage of

space was more difficult to manage. To accommodate growing

enrollment, some students met in rooms borrowed from the main campus

of the Hebrew Academy furnished for the needs of young children. But

this separated them from their fellow preschoolers and put them

farther from the preschool playground.

Perelmuter adapted to the shortage of space by making her office

out of a closet -- one without windows or a without computer. There

was simply no room. There wasn’t even room to sit a parent down

across from her desk.

“It’s a dream,” said Perelmuter of the campus, which was dedicated

and opened to students in September. “We are thrilled to be in this

new building. We are enjoying all the big new rooms, our own kitchen,

the new toys, equipment and furniture.”

Many of the furnishings -- cabinets and cubbies -- were custom

built to be safer and more functional.

Perelmuter is taking pleasure in her new office, too, its windows,

its computer, its openness and easy access to teachers, parents and

students. Her windows look into her classrooms and out to the

playground.

“Look at this,” Perelmuter said and waved her hand toward a brand

new cot in the corner of her office. “I can watch a sick child right

here.”

She glowed over what the new facilities afforded her.

“I have a digital camera to take pictures of the children,” She

said. “Then I can put them on this computer. I can send them to the

children’s parents with an e-mail. Can you imagine being at work or

getting home from work and getting something so wonderful as this?”

Perelmuter is pointing to a photograph of half a dozen

preschoolers grinning ear-to-ear. They seem to be in boat -- a boat

in a sand box -- along with a menagerie of stuffed animals. “Noah’s

ark,” she said.

Everything looks expensive. Perelmuter acknowledges that in a

number of ways, where dollars might have been spared for the sake of

money, dollars were spent for the sake of the children’s safety,

education and experiences.

There are extra doors to allow teachers to move from room to room

without them having to leave the building and therefore lose site of

the children. Floors are color-coded to help the young children find

their rooms with ease.

Rooms are larger than state regulations require. There are more

windows and the windows are large, so the rooms are flooded with

natural light. Going beyond what’s required and expected is something

Perelmuter strives to do. Her students go to gymnastics once a week

and swimming lessons are available to 3- and 4-year-olds. She expects

more than credentials from her teachers, she expects caring and

warmth. Perelmuter sees the future in her students and her goal at

the preschool is to challenge their minds and open their hearts.

On Dec. 4, she will hold an open house for anyone who would like

to see the new campus and learn more about the preschool curriculum.