Orange hosts first Early Childhood Education Fair

ORANGE, NJ — The Orange School District had its first Early Childhood Education and Preschool Registration Fair at the Montclair Child Development Center on Saturday, Feb. 27, and, based on the feedback from those who attended, it was an unqualified success.

“It went very well,” said Community Parent Involvement Specialist Iris Ramos on Saturday, Feb. 27. “It was well-attended. We had a lot of inquiries. We registered quite a bit of people. All of our private providers were here. It was a success.”

According to Ramos and a spokesperson for Superintendent of Schools Ron Lee, the Registration Fair was the result of the successful collaboration between the Orange School District, the six licensed community child care programs the district works with and the federally funded Head Start program. The Orange School District has six in-district preschool facilities at Forest Street School, Heywood Avenue School, Oakwood Avenue Community School, Orange Early Childhood Center, Orange Early Childhood Center at Scholars Academy and Rosa Parks Community School.

Ramos and Lee’s representative also said the Registration Fair offered parents an overview of the district’s Early Childhood program and on-site registration for parents who brought the required documentation.

Ramos said the documents necessary for registration at the fair included proof the child will be 3 or 4 years old by Oct. 1; proof of residency; a copy of the original birth certificate; child’s immunization record; current lease or mortgage statement; two additional proofs of residency, such as PSE&G bill, telephone or cable bill; and a picture ID of the parent. She said cell phone bills were not accepted.

“This is our first annual Registration Fair that we’ve done in the district where we’re actually registering people,” said Ramos. “And then, starting March 14 to 17, we’ll do our spring registration drive at our Orange Early Childhood at 397 Park Ave. The information is on the website. Parents can get the times there or they can call 973-677-4000, ext. 1904 or 1922.”

Maria DeFalco, the preschool nurse for the entire Orange School District, said early childhood education and programs such as Head Start are exactly what children and families need to get the education and socialization balls rolling, when it comes to youngsters’ academic careers.

“I check all their immunization records; I give them the paper to take to their doctors for their physicals,” said DeFalco on Saturday, Feb. 27. “They need to have their full immunization schedule; they need to have a physical; they need to have all of their paperwork; and the lease and all that stuff that they need. It went very well. We did a lot of registrations.”

Medinia Cham was one of the parents who took advantage of the fair to register her daughter, Atalia, 3, for preschool. Her other daughter, Zarlie, 6, already is enrolled in kindergarten in the district and she plans to enroll her son, Joshua, 1½, in prekindergarten when he gets older.

“Early Childhood Education is good because it helps a child to develop better,” said Cham on Saturday, Feb. 27. “My daughter was born after the cutoff date to register for prekindergarten at 2 years old, but she was doing well in school. She knows a lot of stuff, but her language wasn’t well-developed, so when they interact with each other, they speak better, learn better and focus better.”

Cham said she’s glad she came out to the Registration Fair, because she was able to do everything she needed to do for her daughter at one time, in one location.

“I received a phone call that they were having a Registration Fair, so I came in, but I didn’t know exactly what to bring,” said Cham. “It’s good but, in the future, when they call you, if they could give more information, that would be better. I like that they have an after-school program, which is very helpful. So when she comes home, most of her work is already done. The only thing we have to do is look over it to see what she did wrong. It really helps a lot, especially with the after-school program.”

Barbara Burger, one of the Orange School District social workers, said she is a big fan of the district and its Early Childhood Education program. She said she’s an “Orange girl” who graduated from Orange High School, so she knows the kind of quality education that’s available.

“I worked for Head Start for many years and I think the Orange preschools are fabulous, which is why I came back to work here. It’s wonderful. It’s a great program. I’m very happy,” said Burger on Saturday, Feb. 27. “I think that we really always try to give our families school of choice, so they get to really talk to the different preschools. We have Board of Education preschools and we also contract with private providers. So again, I feel it’s really important the parents have the choice of what they want. Some are big, some are small, so in preschool, we really try to give them school of choice.”

  Early Childhood Education Fair, FEATURED