“We really had a great school, and people appreciated it,” she said.”I’m going to have to dig up something else to do now.”
Dickey and Jones moved their preschool from Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Fairfield, to Lindenwald, where Dickey and her family were church members. Together, they created a school for children ages 3-5 that built a strong community foundation where former students would choose to bring their own children.
Teacher Vicki Uhl, who taught ages 3-5 at the preschool for 20 years until its final day of school on May 23, said that she began teaching at the preschool after her own daughters were students.
“We liked it so much,” she said. “We’ve just always tried to make learning so much more fun. (The students) don’t hate coming to school.”
Linda Loman, who taught the three-year-old class for over 20 years, and has been retired for about four years, said that the school closing was a combination of the lower enrollment (this past school year, the program contained 22 students, according to Uhl), new state regulations for preschools, and public schools increasing their preschool programs.
“The public schools are having preschools, and we don’t offer daycare,” Loman said. “It’s just a 2½ hour session, morning and afternoon.”
“St. Ann (Catholic School) opened a preschool now, and public schools have preschools,” Dickey said. “We just couldn’t compete.”
Loman, a former home economics teacher, was hired as a teacher through her friendship with Dickey’s daughter-in-law. Word of mouth enabled many parents and teachers to learn about the program.
“Jane was always very diligent about hiring people,” Loman said. “She wanted the teachers to have college degrees.”
Both teachers said that they’ve enjoyed seeing their former students around the community, and even teaching their children later in the same preschool.
“I’m not on Facebook, but my older daughter is, and she’ll have people asking her if she’s Mrs. Uhl’s daughter,” Uhl said.
“When they were told that the school was closing, some of the moms (who had attended the school themselves) were crying, because they had one more kid to go through, and they wanted all of their children to go through the school,” Loman said.
Several families lived out of the district, in Ross and Edgewood, among others, and would bring their children to the preschool, Loman said.
“It’s always nice when you see the college graduation notices in the newspaper, and you recognize some of your children in there,” Uhl said. “It’s not been a job, it’s been a blessing.”
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