Big Park Community School will once again be filled with the voices of young children playing and learning when Sedona Village Learning Center opens its doors on Monday, March 16. The nonprofit preschool will be located in a former kindergarten classroom at the BPCS campus, which was shut down as part of the Sedona Oak Creek School District in 2018.
“My passion comes from having this idea after [BPCS] closed of providing a preschool to increase the educational opportunities of early childhood education,” SVLC owner and founder Joanna McPherson said. “If someone doesn’t create a school for the Village of Oak Creek, in five or 10 years there won’t be any kids.”
McPherson, a VOC resident, has a 2-year-old daughter and is six months pregnant. She said the idea of starting up a preschool first came to her in August of 2019, and by fall of that year she had enlisted the help of former BPCS preschool teacher Shara Coughlin to be SVLC’s director and teacher.
While McPherson’s background as former dean of students of the Verde Valley School, VOC’s private boarding high school, means she is able to deal with the business side of the preschool, including grant-writing and funding, Coughlin has the know-how on working with preschoolers and is trained in the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program.
“I think it happened so quickly because we had such a shared vision and because we both brought unique [skills] that were so complementary that we could really just click,” Coughlin said.
One of the visions both McPherson and Coughlin shared was that SVLC would be a preschool, not a daycare facility.
“SVLC has distinguished themselves from childcare programs, which do not require teachers to have an educational background and do not focus on kindergarten preparation,” McPherson said. “Many parents have been surprised to learn of the differences.”
“I feel like childcare is geared toward meeting the needs of the parents whereas a true preschool is geared toward meeting the needs of the students,” Coughlin said, adding that the flexible drop-in hours for daycare programs often interrupt student learning.
The SVLC’s structured schedule, starting at 8:30 a.m. with a morning welcome before circle time and a themed project, is better for getting the preschoolers [and their parents] used to kindergarten. Getting the students prepared to enter kindergarten at the SOCD is part of the preschool’s objective, and McPherson and Coughlin will even be adapting the district’s kindergarten curriculum for their classroom.
The preschool will be hands-on and project-based, “emphasizing child-centered learning through creative problem-solving, critical-thinking and positive relationships,” according to the SVLC website. The natural sciences, arts, music, history, world languages and culture will be taught with a range of “diverse materials and lessons.”
McPherson also plans to have area volunteers that specialize in gardening, art or other fields come in and do lessons with the children. In addition, Coughlin will be pulling small focus groups of students daily to go over letters, numbers, reading or whatever else she notices that the children would benefit from.
“What’s great is, it’s not by age, it’s by where you’re at. And sometimes I have kids that actually come in as pre-readers or even early readers that have never held a pair of scissors,” Coughlin said. “It just creates a great flow and provides an opportunity to pull kids with different areas.”
Some of Coughlin’s teaching style comes from her time in a first-grade classroom.
“Invariably I end up teaching place value, which makes me laugh, because who teaches place value in preschool?” Coughlin said, referencing the value numeral digits have depending on where they are in a number. “But it happens because I always have one student every year that notices the pattern in the calendar.”
Coughlin added that the dynamic between the 3-, 4- and 5-year-old children is great, and there is a natural structure set out for the older kids to mentor the younger kids and the younger kids to aspire to learn at the older kids’ level. McPherson also said that by starting as early as possible, they are preparing kids to be life-long learners.
“I don’t think there’s this magical age where all the sudden it’s OK to be ready to learn, or all the sudden there’s this wisdom we can bestow upon you at a certain age,” Coughlin said. “I think learning is organic and I think it happens from birth and I think, why would we limit a child to only being exposed to certain information as soon as they hit 4? Three is a great age. [At] 3 they’re curious, they want to know about the world around them.”
Experience from another one of Coughlin’s previous jobs will also come in handy. With a nursing degree from Pennsylvania State University, Coughlin said she will take every precaution to make sure students are as healthy as possible. Usually, children get sick the first few weeks of preschool when they are exposed to so many new people, surfaces and objects. Coughlin said she will boil the wooden blocks and make sure other well-loved areas are cleaned regularly, specifically with green and non-toxic cleaning supplies.
Coughlin is still trying to nip one habit from her nursing career, however.
“Joanna makes fun of me because I am constantly calling the student’s files ‘charts,’” Coughlin laughed.
McPherson and Coughlin are still accepting students and have 11 signed up so far. If they get 14 or more, another former BPCS teacher will come on board. They are open to families not just from the Village of Oak Creek or Sedona, but Cottonwood and other outlying areas in order to better meet the needs of parents who work in the area and want to drop their child off where they work.
The duo are also able to help families in need by offering a scholarship program. So far, five students have had their tuition paid for by generous donors.
“We are a business, but we don’t have profits that we’re going to [go crazy] with. It goes back into the scholarship program,” McPherson said. “Specifically, it’s for the purpose of serving the families I mentioned to you and I just feel so good about knowing this is a contribution to the community. That’s why we’re here. That’s what gets me up in the morning to make this space amazing, because I know it’s needed and it’s going to be really impactful.”
An upcoming fundraiser to support the scholarship program will be held Monday, March 16, by the Sedona Village Partnership at J Wine Bistro in The Collective Sedona. To reserve tickets, contact davidhgill@gmail. com.
Those interested in finding out more information, registering their child, volunteering or submitting items for the SVLC wishlist can contact sedona villagelearningcenter@gmail.com or visit the website at sedonavillage.org.
Alexandra Wittenberg can be reached at 282-7795 ext 126 or at awittenberg@larsonnewspapers.com
