Community Day Nursery

“A draft of form 990 is reviewed by executive director then distributed to, and reviewed by the board of trustees prior to the form being filed. The form 990 is discussed with a question and answer period prior to the final board approval. Upon approval, the form 990 is submitted to the internal revenue service.”

“The organization requires annual conflicts of interest statements from all board members. These statements are reviewed by the president and executive director of the organization. All board members are required to disclose any conflicts of interest.”

“Compensation for the organization's executive director is determined by the new jersey department of education contract. Other salaries are determined by the executive director and treasurer and are based on similar agencies and programs. There are no other top management, officers, or key employees compensated within the organization.”

“The governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statments are always available to the public at the organization's office or by request.”

“(continued from from 990, page 1) offering a high quality full day preschool education to the children of east orange, new jersey. Community day nursery has been serving children and their families since 1897. We believe high-quality early childhood education ensures children to be ready for kindergarten and beyond. We are accredited by the national association for the education of young children which means we meet the high standards set to ensure children will be safe, healthy, and learning each day. Our certified teachers have degrees and are well trained in early childhood. They build caring relationships with each child, and plan activities that are fun and challenging. Ongoing assessment ensures children continue to learn and develop.”

“(continued from form 990, page 2) it is our goal to strengthen a cooperative partnership with families through a variety of parenting services and group activities.”

“Community day nursery has been serving children and their families by providing high quality childcare and education for over 100 years. Currently, three and four year old east orange residents spend up to ten hours daily, twelve months per year in our classrooms. Our program runs from september through august from 7:30am until 5:30pm. Our contract with the east orange board of education to provide preschool services remains in force. This funding has allowed community day nursery to engage degreed, state certified teachers for ten months of the year, update the classrooms by purchasing new furniture and learning materials, and hire and train paraprofessional family support staff. However, the small ratios that we believe are necessary for a high-quality early childhood program are maintained through our utilization of part-time teacher assistants. These employees work 7:30am through 9:30am and 3:30pm through 5:30pm, in addition to full days, as needed. Our part-time staff participates in professional development opportunities with our full-timers. When we lose a full-time employee, we can offer employment to a part-timer whom we know and trust, because of the relationship developed over time, and who has received the educational opportunities to excel in the classroom. We also send the part-timers to take classes on an individual basis, as needed. Where some schools utilize substitute teachers, we continue to maintain three full-time on site substitutes (floaters) so the children are always in familiar surroundings with people they know and trust. When no staff member is absent, all three floaters serve as a third person in classrooms allowing the teacher to work one-on-one with children. The staffing for two of the floaters and all of the part-time employees is provided through private funding. It has been our experience that the children in our program become effective listeners, have enhanced vocabularies, understand the concepts of sharing, taking turns and following directions. Feedback from the kindergarten teachers in the east orange school district has been overwhelmingly positive. They tell us, "we know the children who come to us from community day; they are ready to participate from the first day of school." the school district regularly sends people who are interested in the preschool program to visit our center. Our staff turnover is significantly low compared to other childcare agencies across the country. Community day nursery has been accredited since 1997 by the national association for the education of young children (naeyc). This process involves a yearlong intense self-evaluation process and ongoing self-assessment and correction. Naeyc has re-vamped the accreditation process and now requires extensive documentation from the classrooms and administrators. Each classroom teacher and the director have assembled a portfolio that documents the ways in which the program implements the criteria organized by ten standards: 1) promote positive relationships for all children and adults. 2) implement a curriculum fostering all areas of child development-cognitive, emotional, language, physical and social. 3) use developmentally, culturally and linguistically appropriate and effective teaching approaches. 4) provide ongoing assessments of children and staff. 5) promote nutrition and health of children and staff. 6) employ and support qualified teaching staff. 7) establish and maintain collaborative relationships with families. 8) establish and maintain relationships and use resources of the community. 9) provide a safe and healthy physical environment. 10) implement strong program management policies that result in high-quality service. We are visited twice annually for the purpose of evaluation by the east orange school district. Representatives also visit us from the new jersey department of education. They rate one of our classrooms annually according to the early childhood education rating scale and send the repo”

“The organization has a committee that is responsible for overseeing the audit of the financial statements and the selection of the independent accountant that audited the financial statements. This process has not changed from the prior year.”