Church gets ready for preschool

Space still available for 3- to 4-year-olds

LAURA EMERSON/VIEWNew Song Lutheran Church Preschool director Janacay Deen shows off a mural in a classroom at the school at 1291 Cornet St. on July 23. The new Christian preschool is scheduled to open for the 2009-10 academic year. Advertisement

New Song Lutheran Church is adding a school reserved for its smallest parishioners.

On Sept. 14, the church is opening its preschool, which accepts children ages 3 and 4. Classes will be held from 9 to 11:45 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 3-year-olds, and at the same time on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for 4-year-olds. The school may add afternoon sessions as enrollment increases.

Patti Watanabe enrolled her 31/2-year-old son Makoto, because she felt the school's staff was "incredibly friendly" and focused on teaching little children. This will be Makoto's first time away from home, and his mother wanted to find a safe place in a kind environment.

"I went to many places, and this was it," Watanabe said.

As of press time, there were about 20 children enrolled at the preschool for the 2009-10 academic year. Tuition costs $200 a month for 3-year-olds and $300 a month for 4-year-olds. Spaces for students are still available.

"We're really excited," Marta Poling-Goldenne, New Song's pastor, said. "It's pretty amazing, the amount of preparation that goes into opening a preschool."

In all, the Lutheran church worked for more than two years to open the school at 1291 Cornet St.

"Finding the right staff is really important," Poling-Goldenne said.

New Song Preschool will employ two teachers and two aides, and the teachers are required to have either an early childhood education degree or elementary education degree.

"We want to be sure we're a step above," Poling-Goldenne said.

New Song is using the Clark County School District curriculum for preschool. In addition, there will be an emphasis on Christian education and fine arts, with the congregation's music director stepping in to teach music, movement and dancing to the children.

Darci Poloni enrolled her 3-year-old daughter Riley at New Song because of the school's close proximity to her home and the faith-based education the campus will offer.

"We're just really excited for the year to start," Poloni said.

The mother also said she liked the idea of her daughter only attending school half a day for two days, to help ease the transition from her being at home all the time into school.

For its first year, preschool director Janacay Deen said her goals are to bring up enrollment and get the word out about the new campus.

"We just want to serve the community," Deen said.

Before becoming the preschool's director, Deen was a preschool and second-grade teacher in Utah and a substitute preschool teacher in Southern Nevada.

On her new position, she said: "I'm helping build something from the ground up. That's really important to me."

For more information about New Song Preschool, call 492-1771 or visit www.newsonganthem.org.

Contact View education reporter Laura Emerson at lcarroll@viewnews.com or 380-4588.