Preschool celebrates 20 years of progress
Cupcakes, crayons and story time for a 20th birthday party?
Sure, when it’s The Edgar L. & Rheta A. Berkley Child and Family Development Center celebrating two decades of serving the community’s children.
The Berkley Center, part of UMKC’s School of Education, is a state-of-the-art early childhood school that serves as a learning laboratory for college students. The Berkley Center has served nearly 2,000 children and hundreds of families in the Kansas City community since it opened in 1993.
The birthday party was held at the James C. Olson Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. About 300 people attended, including alumni, past and current center families, friends of the center and current and past staff and teachers.
The highlight of the event was a children’s opera, How the Camel Got His Hump, composed and staged by Leah Sproul Pulatie. Pulatie is a Doctoral student with the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance; in 2012, she was awarded an Inspiration Grant by the Kansas City Arts Council to produce the opera.
Wanda J. Blanchett, Ph.D., School of Education Dean and Ewing Marion Kauffman/Missouri Endowed Chair for Teacher Education shared highlights from the center’s two decades of service and achievement. She said the Berkley Center:
- Is recognized as a 4-star quality program by Missouri’s Quality Rating System;
- Has been recognized in the Kansas City community multiple times in the last 20 years, including winning an award in 2003 from The Whole Child Development Association for Best Practices in partnering with families;
- Participates in the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) voluntary accreditation process;
- Is well-known on a local, state and national level for presentations on infant and toddler care and curriculum, the importance of play, anti-bias education and leadership; and
- Is a leader in early childhood education by offering Continuing Education classes in the evenings since 2010 to support other early childhood centers in the Greater Kansas City Area and has provided on-site training to St. Mark’s and The Goddard Schools.
Just this year, the Missouri State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education called upon the expertise of the Berkley Center’s director, Polly Prendergast, to be among the reviewers of Missouri preschool curriculum.
The party also raised funds for new outdoor playground equipment.
“As Berkley celebrates its 20th birthday, we are launching a fundraising campaign for a new climber and cushioning turf. Our wooden preschool climber is also turning 20 and has stood the test of play for 20 years. Unfortunately it is now rotting and we are in desperate need of a new structure,” Prendergast said. “I am excited to announce that to help kick off the campaign we received a lead gift of $20,000 from the Oppenstein Brothers Foundation and more than $700 in donations from the Berkley Center teachers and staff, along with commitments from several families.”
Another $200 was collected at the celebration. To date, current gifts total nearly $42,000 for the anticipated $65,000-$80,000 project. A new custom-built playground will not only save thousands of dollars annually on maintenance and repairs but, more importantly, provide the preschool children with safer cushioning turfs and new equipment; and meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards, making the playground more accessible to children with different capabilities.
Donation forms are available at the Berkley Center; UMKC faculty and staff can direct their UMKC campus donations to Berkley’s playground project. To learn more about how to support this project, call Polly Prendergast at 816-235-2601.