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.
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