Evesham School District’s Teddy Bear Academy daycare celebrates first full year
A very special birthday recently passed at the Evesham Township School District’s “Teddy Bear Academy,” the district’s early childhood care center.
No, the birthday didn’t belong to one of the many children housed within Teddy Bear Academy’s walls, but instead it belonged to the Teddy Bear Academy itself.
On June 30, the district-run program celebrated its first full year of operation, having opened its doors on June 30, 2014, just six months after the Board of Education approved the idea in January of that year.
With the program serving children ages 6 weeks to pre-kindergarten, Evesham Child Care coordinator Leah Perlmutter said her original expectations were high for Teddy Bear Academy, but the first year exceeded those expectations.
“I think it has met all of my expectations and beyond,” Perlmutter said. “Our families are amazing. We just have the best. The parents are just so sweet, and we have just such a nice, little family here.”
According to Perlmutter, throughout the year, the program averaged about 75 children per day, and it’s close to reaching that number again with September enrollments.
Building capacity limits the program to 90 kids at one time, although the program is staffed at a level for the average of 75.
“I feel that the 75 is actually a really good number, but I am ready for more if we get them,” Perlmutter said.
Things have gone so well that Perlmutter said the only thing she believes the academy could have improved upon in its first year was it didn’t have as big of an outdoor playground as she would have preferred.
“We have a small fenced-in area with some small equipment, but no swings or slides or anything like that,” Perlmutter said. “But we couldn’t do everything in the first year, so I think that’s a big thing we will concentrate on for the second year.”
Located in its own sectioned-off portion of Marlton Middle School, the academy consists of multiple classrooms, a nurse’s office, bathrooms, an indoor and outdoor play area and an entrance to the school exclusive to academy families.
Perlmutter said being connected to Marlton Middle has also made it as if the academy and school are “one big happy family,” and the school has been very welcoming.
Perlmutter said that familial attitude includes things such as having middle school students come to read to those at the academy, to even having middle school students make crafts with the academy’s children during a day of service.
“We did our Halloween parade and marched through the halls of the middle school, during which the principal let students cheer our little guys on as we were walking down, so we’ve had such a neat collaboration,” Perlmutter said.
Perlmutter also said the program has had positive feedback from the families of enrolled students, with a very low number of students leaving the program over the year.
“We have our graduates that are moving on to kindergarten, and then a few leaving here or there perhaps due to one parent no longer working or those who have moved, but that’s been it,” Perlmutter said.
Erika Jimenez, a parent with a child at Teddy Bear Academy, said she worked at a daycare in college and had a bad experience, so she was hesitant to place her own child in a daycare.
However, with Teddy Bear Academy, Jimenez said the personalities of the director and workers have helped to put her at ease.
“The people who work there want to be there and really do enjoy the children,” Jimenez said.
Debra Nolan-Stevenson, another parent with a student at the academy, said when the academy opened, she made the difficult decision to move her daughter from a daycare she was happy with to have her child in the district where she lived. Nolan-Stevenson said she made the right decision.
“I think the teachers are very creative, they’re always very open,” Nolan-Stevenson said. “I always have an opportunity to talk to them. They seem invested and enthusiastic for my daughter’s experience.”
