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 (cdn) has been providing early education & child care services to the community for 117 years. The economic climate continues to challenge our commitment to high-quality services. Revenue shortfalls due to cuts at the state level (nj dept of human services (dhs)) have resulted in a significant reduction in operating funds. Regulations, originally adopted in 2011 by the dhs, have been revised & seriously restrict access to childcare subsidies for our families who need childcare before & after school (7:00am-8:30am then 3:00pm-6:00pm). We have seen this "wrap-around subsidy" for the childcare portion of our day go from 100% participation for all 120 families during the first 7 years of the public preschool program to our current enrollment of 18 children qualifying for the month of december 2014. To further complicate matters, the new system determining eligibility does so for a period ranging from 2 weeks to several months. In addition, the subsidy can be stopped without notice in the event a parent is not working or in school for the required number of hours. This makes estimating revenue for the budget difficult. The model for childcare services throughout nj provides payment to childcare facilities 4 hours per day (before and aftercare) no matter how much time families actually need their child to be in care. Some children are here before school from 7:00am-9:00am & after school from 3:00pm-6:00pm. In order to be responsive to our families, we offer a "menu" of child care services so a family in need of childcare before school doesn't pay for the after school portion of the program & vice versa. We have 19 parents paying for wrap-around care and 18 who qualified for subsidies. Next month we may have more or less but based on our demographic, probably not more than 20% at any given time. When nj dept of education originally estimated the change in regulations, it was estimated the wrap-around population would be 50%. During the past year, we have witnessed a large number of childcare centers closing in essex county due to the reductions in funding. From january through june, we had 117 children attending the school. Currently 119 3 & 4 year old east orange residents attend school at cdn from 8:30am-3:00pm. The majority, 87 children, are of african american descent, 7 children are african, 12 children are hispanic, 2 children are caribbean & 1 child is from the pacific islands. 60 of the children are girls & 59 are boys. Of the children enrolled, 80% are from families qualifying for free or reduced meals through the fda child & adult care food program. During the summer of 2014, 56-58 children attended our summer camp from july 7-august 22. Our new summer camp-staffing pattern incorporates staggered hours during the summer. This allows teachers & assistants to earn revenue during the summer. We also initiated a new program of swimming lessons through an arrangement with the geyer family ymca in montclair. This year we provided 2 afternoon classes per week. Parents registered in advance & paid a fee for each swimming class. Swim instructors, provided by the y, were exceptionally well-trained to work with young children & the children looked forward to their weekly lessons. The y was able to provide enough instructors to give each child individual attention within a small group. We were able to arrange busses through the essex regional educational services commission to transport our children & staff as the superintendent, dr. Jacqueline young, is a member of our board of trustees. A $2,500 grant from investors bank covered the costs of the busses. During the summer, we also continued a program of weekly morning field trips in response to requests from our parents. The trips included: turtle back zoo, kidz village & eagle rock environmental center. We also had jack's petting zoo in our parking lot, peas & carrots children's sing-a-long & the lizard guys in our lobby. Visits to our school garden to harvest f”

“Program for parents: our family workers continue to host monthly parent meetings using the parenting now! Curriculum purchased in march 2003. Some topics are: family values, discipline tools, stress and communicating with your child. This year we have been surprised and excited by the number of parents who attend the meetings. During the first two meetings of the school year parents were asked if they had any special requests. This resulted in a zumba class in our lobby, attended by both moms and dads who participated with great enthusiasm! We are continuing our literacy enhancement program made possible through grants provided by first book, a nonprofit organization that connects book publishers and community organizations to provide access to new books for children in need. Much research regarding the racial and ethnic school readiness gaps indicate that quality parental linguistic interaction in the home is crucial to readiness at school entry and further academic success. One of the indicators of success in school readiness used by many researchers is the number of the books in the home. We want our families to have high-quality early childhood literature available for their children. Each year during january we send home martin's big words by doreen rappaport. It is a beautifully illustrated and elegantly told story of the rev. Dr. Martin luther king, jr. Appropriate for young children. We have continued our collaboration with the east orange public library to make it easy for parents to get library cards for their children. They fill out the paperwork with us and we get the cards and hand them out along with book lists suggesting excellent early childhood literature. Our october 9 back to school night was a great success with half of the families attending. The parents spent time in their children's classrooms learning what the school day looks like, learning about the tools of the mind curriculum as well as how they can support their child's learning at home. On october 24, 2014, we hosted our tenth annual family dinner. We had 84 families (including the siblings and grandparents) in attendance. Each family contributed a dish (or whatever they could manage, sometimes a loaf of bread or a bag of pretzels) and we provided entertainment for the children. This year, peas and carrots, a folk singer, led the children in singing some of their favorite songs and taught them a few new ones-one of which included the children playing castanets. After dinner, the board of trustees judged the dishes and awarded small prizes. The time together builds a relationship between the school and our families in an informal, non-judgmental setting. We were also encouraged by the response of our parents' participation in the parent teacher conferences. We had a response rate approaching 70% this year. Buildings and grounds: as always, we make every attempt to schedule on-going maintenance and avoid surprise breakdowns. However, in march of this year one of our employees noticed what looked like a number of loose bricks on the wall of the building overlooking a children's play yard. An inspection revealed that the masonry was failing due to underlying deposits of moisture. Building techniques have changed since the 1970's when the addition was made to the original structure. The current method includes installing drainage tubes to avoid just the sort of problem that we encountered. Extensive repairs made to the building (removal of 32 lineal feet of parapet wall two courses high) also included the installation of "weep tubes" to forest all further problems as well as re-pointing failing mortar joints and replacing sealant around two door frames. The final bill for the repairs and reconstruction was $45,368. For more information about the school, please visit our website at: www.cdneo.org”

“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.”