With high-tech security, renovated classrooms and freshly-buffed floors, the city’s new preschool facility at Ansonia Middle School impressed dozens of parents who attended an open house there last week.
But on opening day Wednesday, parents should prepare for a parking nightmare, officials said.
“We know it will be an issue,” Diana Brancato, the district’s school readiness coordinator, said to a group of a parents gathered at the preschool’s new playground last week.
“We are just hoping for your patience and to drive carefully in the meantime, knowing there are little ones running around here. It’s the only hurdle we have to get through.”
District-wide Shuffle
The district moved its two preschool programs to the one location this summer as part of a city-wide redistricting.
Previously, roughly 90 city preschoolers attended preschools at either Prendergast School or the Redwing Pond House at the Ansonia Nature Center.
Starting Wednesday, all 90 students will be in the sixth grade wing of the Ansonia Middle School on Howard Avenue.
(As part of the redistricting, sixth graders are being moved to either Mead or Prendergast schools. Click here to read more about the changes.)
But that means the 21 preschool staff members are also moving to the Middle School, which can hold only 37 cars in the parking lot. Now there will be 63 employees looking to park there each morning, Brancato said.
Add to that the 90 sets of parents who will likely drop off their young children at the school each morning and you’ve got a headache in the narrow, cul-de-sac type parking lot behind the school.
The district has applied to the Planning and Zoning Commission for permission to extend the parking lot so staff and parents can enter on Day Street and exit on Howard Avenue, Brancato said.
But the Planning and Zoning Commission hasn’t discussed the topic yet.
“We’re waiting for that meeting to find out what to do about the road to help with the flow,” Brancato said. “For the first week, we’ll have officers directing traffic.”
Brancato also asked parents to be patient while the school goes through the accreditation process again. While the former preschools were accredited by the National Association For the Educating of Young Children, Brancato said the merged program requires reaccreditation.
The Facility
Parents seemed to brush off the potential parking problems as they toured the new facility.
The fresh wax and new gadgets gleamed as parents wandered around the five classrooms last week.
The bathrooms have been retrofitted with tiny toilets and sinks. The cinder-block classrooms have been painted and are filled with colorful toys and rugs.
Some could hardly believe the space used to house the sixth graders.
(Note: School officials have not answered questions about how much the facility cost to build. The Valley Independent Sentinel, which asked for the information last week, filed a Freedom of Information request for the costs Monday afternoon. Tuesday morning, district officials released the cost information. The total renovation and moving costs for the facility were $125,682, according to Eileen Ehman, grants manager for Ansonia Schools.)
Others recalled the days when the space housed the math wing at what was then Ansonia High School.
Erick Sardo said the same lockers from his high school days were in cleaned up and will be put to use for preschoolers. His 4‑year-old daughter, Cristina Sardo, will attend the preschool this year.
“Everything’s so clean,” Sardo said. “There’s cameras. Security doesn’t look like it will be a problem.”
Big Brother’s Watching?
Security was one concern of many parents when they found out about the change. They wondered if the seventh and eighth graders who are still housed at the school would be able to get into the preschool, or if the building — in the middle of a dense residential neighborhood — would be easy to penetrate by outsiders.
But a high-tech security system allows each teacher to control who comes in and out of the building.
People who arrive at the outside door must ring a buzzer and stand in front of a camera. The buzzer is hooked up to video telephones in each classroom.
Teachers can see the person trying to get into the building without leaving the classroom. If the teacher recognizes the parent, he or she can unlock the door immediately.
If the teacher doesn’t know who the person at the door is, the teacher can communicate with the person using the telephone. Then the teacher can meet the person at an inner set of locked doors to check for identification.
A separate, locked door separates the upstairs, where the older students are located, from the first-floor preschool. The middle school principal is able to unlock this door from the outside.
Good First Impressions
Many parents said they were impressed by the facility.
Sandra Otero-Valentin, whose 3‑year-old daughter, Vanessa, will attend the school, said she liked the facility better than a day care setting, which was her alternative.
“This is a more structured environment for her,” Otero-Valentin said.
Others said once they saw the facility, it allayed their fears about the move.
“At first I was a a little bit reluctant because of the seventh and eighth grade being here,” parent Caroline Ruiz said. “I wondered, ‘Would they have security there?’”
Ruiz said she liked the buzzer system and the fact that the administrators’ offices overlook the outside playground.
“I fell comfortable now,” Ruiz said. “We’ve got to see how it will go.”
