Parkside Preschool

I have been a Park Side parent for over four years. Both of my children attended the preschool and we were happy with the play based curriculum. In October, the director had a parent volunteer install playground equipment, but did not think it necessary to anchor it or put padding underneath it. While a group of students was playing on it, the swing set tipped over killing one of the students. After the incident, the director sent out emails blatantly lying to parents about the situation. She said that the swing set had been inspected after it had been installed. It turns out she never contacted CCLD (preschool licensing agency) to come out and inspect the new playground equipment. The director also knew that padding was needed. She sent an email to the parent volunteer a day before the incident requesting them to buy padding for under the swing, but also stating that the children love the swing. So she knew that they needed padding, but was still allowing the children to play on the equipment. We loved the preschool and the teachers. We decided to pull our son from the preschool because we can't trust the director to make critical safety decisions.

Just the Facts: - 1/2 day program 9am-11:45am - 2 Day, 3 Day & 5 Day program options - Cost: $$ - Snacks Included in cost - 1 to 8 ration (but usually even lower depending on daily attendance) - Wait Lists usually start in Dec. for the next school year - In House Enrollment starts in Feb. - Open Enrollment starts in March. For my child Park Side has been an amazing place for her to grow both emotionally and intellectually. My daughter started their 2 day program when she was a little over 2 1/2 and potty trained. She has always been a mommy's girl but she only ever had one bad day when she started because the teachers where so great with her. She is now going 3 days a week and we plan on enrolling her in their 5 day program next year. She already asks to go 5 days now. They are a play based school which is hard to find now and for me and my family important. We live in a condo with not a huge back yard so I love that my daughter has the opportunity to have a good amount of gross motor skills time at school with their large play ground. They have a play structure, a climbing structure, a large sandbox, cars and tricycles, play houses and a school garden. But she also gets all of the intellectual stuff that she needs from there crafts, activities and games that they play. My daughter can spell her name, count to 26, recognizes all upper case letters and almost all lower cases. Some of these skills are closer to what a 5+ year old should be doing and she is still not quite 4. And this is all with out a formal "math" time or "language" time. They also take great effort to introduce the kids to all of the cultures that make up the school. They celebrated Thanksgiving & Christmas but also talked and did activities for Hanukkah, Diwali, Chinese New Year, Easter, Valentines Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day etc. During many of these special days parents are invited or encouraged to come. They even do a mother day tea. The thing I love the most though is that they love my daughter (and all of their students). There is a teacher that greets the students in the morning usually with hugs. When someone is out sick they make sure to connect with them. And last year when my daughter had to have major surgery they worked with me to make sure that she was comfortable when she came back. Also they found a book about her surgery made for kids and would read it to the class while she was gone so that the students would understand. It seemed to help everyone a lot. I highly recommend this school and can't wait till my son (20 months) can go. He already loves it when he visits.

This school is currently under investigation with County Care Licensing Dept and the Newark Police Dept due to the death of a child while in their care. The child died after she fell off a tire swing improperly and unsafely installed in the playground area.

Updated 11/17/2018 Due to the event/'s at this Pre-School, I have lost trust and faith in the School Director and other staff. parksidepreschoolsafety

I can no longer support this Pre-School, I feel what happened could of be stopped.