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 118 years. The economic climate continues to challenge our commitment to high-quality services. The severely restricted state funding (nj dept of human services (dhs) has resulted in a significant reduction in operating funds. Regulations, originally adopted in 2011 by the dhs, had 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 19 children qualifying for the month of december 2015. 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 25 parents paying for wrap-around care and 19 who qualified for subsidies. Next month we may have more or fewer who will qualify for state aid, but based on our demographic, probably not more than 20% at any given time. When nj dept of education originally estimated the affect the change in regulations would have, it was estimated the wrap-around population would be 50%. During the past year, we have continued to see a large number of childcare centers closing in essex county due to these reductions in funding. From january through june, we had 117 children attending the school. Currently 120 three & four year old east orange residents attend school at cdn from 8:30am-3:00pm. The majority of our children, 88, 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. This year we have three bilingual spanish/english classrooms (out of a total of eight classrooms) as the latino population in east orange has been growing. Because of the number of spanish speaking staff we employ, parents feel welcomed & cared for when they enter our building. The sisters, brothers & cousins of children attending cdn continue to request our center when enrolling. In two classrooms the lead teacher is bilingual with an english speaking assistant & in the third class the teacher assistant is bilingual with an english speaking lead teacher. For the number of families enrolling that speak haitian creole we are able to place the children in a class with a lead teacher who speaks haitian creole. We also have a teacher assistant & an administrative assistant on staff who are bilingual haitian creole-english. During the summer of 2015, 56 children attended our summer camp from june 29-august 21. This year, for the first time, we welcomed back children who had finished kindergarten in june, in addition to our three & four year olds. Our license from the state of new jersey allows us to care forchildren from two & one-half years until six years of age. Our summer camp staffing pattern incorporates staggered hours during the summer. This allows teachers & assistants who want to work to ea”

“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. 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. We also hosted our annual family dinner. We had 70 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. Our parents participation in the parent teacher conferences varied by class with an overall participation rate of 63%. However two of our bilingual spanish classes had over 80% participation. Buildings and grounds: last winter we experienced extremely cold weather. Our utility bills were extremely high, higher than any previous year in the last decade. We have a 28 foot hallway that was constructed of floor to ceiling plexiglass windows. When that section of the building was erected in the 1970's the consideration was strictly aesthetics, not energy efficiency. In the decades that have passed, the windows had become opaque & had been defaced by scratches. This year we had 24 double paned tempured windows installed at a cost of $38,000. There are two classrooms with the same plexiglass floor to ceiling windows installed. Heating & cooling those two classrooms is a constant problem & is very expensive year round. We hope to be able to replace them with the more efficient glass soon. 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.”