PROGRAM PROPOSAL: Green Apple Garden Preschool

An extension of the program at Green Apple Garden Playschool

Proposal date: 11/10/15
By: Nuola Akinde, Interim Program Director at Green Apple Garden Playschool
1. Description: The extension program will function as a Reggio-inspired garden preschool
and kindergarten. The Preschool and Kindergarten would have the same philosophical
objectives as Green Apple Garden Playschool including anti-bias and peace-based curriculum,
environmental stewardship, nature play, and child-led learning, and would give children ages
4-6 the opportunity to explore nature, art, and community building, in deeper, more
meaningful ways.
2. Benefits:
- Learning from play and from hands-on experiences, children benefit from being
outside. Research has shown that children learn best when they are engaged and
active. Experiencing this in the outdoor setting stimulates all their systems and
teaches them from a place-based educational perspective.
- Green Apple Garden Playschool will remain at 2664 Miller as an Infant/Toddler and
Young Preschool program with three classrooms; a young toddlers “Pips” room, Older
Toddlers “Sprouts” room, and young Preschoolers (age 2.5- 3.5) “Saplings” Room.
Children at both sites will benefit from having more space to engage with children in
their age groups, and teachers will benefit from being able to meet the needs of a
specific age-population. In addition, each site will be able to meet the mission and
vision in ways that are meaningful for the children in their care. For example, the older
children G.A.G. Preschool will be able to care for a small group of chickens, and a
smaller, but very intentionally designed garden space. We will also be able to visit the
community garden, at West Park.
3. Design:
This program would include children ages 4-6. The preschool hours would be 8:30-5:30. We
would continue to offer the flexible scheduling that is currently offered at Green Apple.
Kindergarten would be Monday through Friday, and families would be offered a half-day
(8:30-12:30) or full day (8:30-3:30) option.
Though we could not initially offer early drop off, it is possible that we could hire a morning
floater to be available at that time.
4. Staffing:
Age 4-5 requires a 1:12 ratio. We would offer a maximum of 20 preschool spaces, and would
staff 1 Lead Teacher, 1 Co-Teacher and a floater and/or parent volunteer.
In order to provide high-quality Kindergarten, we would offer a maximum of 8 Kindergarten
spaces, with one teacher.
With Apple Playschools’ increased administrative team, we would be able to accommodate
the increased paperwork. For example, enrollment and HR paperwork at G.A.G. Preschool
would be absorbed into the current Office Manager role. Hiring and Supervision would be
provided by the G.A. Director, with support from an Assistant Director/Permanent Sub as
needed (30 hour role to be shared between both sites). Ideally the Lead Teacher would also
be qualified as a Director. No additional administrative staff would be needed.
5. Curriculum: The curriculum would continue to be emergent, child-led, project-based,
Reggio-Inspired and nature based one, with themes that unfold over long periods of time.
Teachers will guide children in deep exploration of the topics they choose, and will use the
surrounding areas as resources to scaffold their work.
Curricular supplements:
Several additions can be made the the current preschool curriculum to meet the
developmental needs of the children ages 4-6. In the current Green Apple Saplings room, the
large span of mixed ages does not allow for these in-depth, hands-on lessons. Some additions
to the Preschool curriculum would include:
● Weekly field trips to the Downtown Farmer’s Market. These walking trips would root
the children deeper into the larger community, and give many opportunities for
emergent math and literacy activities. Children would also have a more complete
understanding of local food growth and commerce. This could also lead to “Soup
Wednesdays” where children make soup from the market produce they buy.
● Forest Fridays: These weekly trips to the woods would continue, and with a group of
older children, we would be able to take longer trips, and engage in more intentional
projects.
● Homesteading: With the addition of a mini-oven in the building, Saplings could engage
in more detailed cooking projects from the garden, and farmer’s market. We will also
be able to have a crafting area, where children have open access to handwork
materials like needles, thread, yarn and embroidery hoops.
● Animals: Older children are better able to care for animals. We could have a couple of
creatures that help children understand food webs. For example, quails or a couple of
hens, as well as snails. Children would learn about the ways that eggshells from birds
impact the shell production of snails.
● Small scale sustainability: I’m interested in helping the children learn more about
sustainability in small spaces. We would be even more mindful of little things (like
vermi-compost and rain barrels) to big things, like implementing micro-farming and
permaculture practices into our school garden.
6. Financial Information:
All schedules offered:
We would offer care for the same scheduling options as currently available at the Playschool.
At full capacity (twenty preschool children at $1144/month; eight preschool children at
$1000/month) the site revenue would be $30,880)
Central Account Contribution $10,000
Payroll $9,490.00
Building cost: (Rent and utilities) $2000
Health Insur. Reimbursements 450
Food 400
Classroom Supplies 300
Office Expenses 50
Meals and Entertainment 100
Household Supplies 175
Subcontractors 100
Professional Development 150
Gift Expense 50
Taxes and Licenses 42
Total expenses $23,307.00
Net profit:$7,573
Impact on G.A.G. Playschool (2664)
5. Marketing/Partnerships: We have the benefit of already marketing our program, and this
would be a tag-on to what is already established. We have several families on our preschool
waiting list, and if we move quickly, we could easily fill a few part-time spots. With our
currently four and five year old families (with a couple of exceptions) we could expect
$5,944.70 in enrollment to come with us to 511. Our families have been participating in our
expansion explorations for over a year and will be open and satisfied with a final decision.
For the Kindergarten program, we would like to renew discussions with the Leslie Science
Center, to discuss forming a partnership.
6. Urgency: There are many reasons why this program extension is an urgent matter. One
reason is that we have waiting lists for each classroom, and would like to enroll many of those
families before they find other options. Nextly, in order to increase Apple Playschools’
financial health, it would be great to continue expand the number of children and families we
are able to serve. And meet more appropriate financial ratios without being constricted by
structural (literal and figurative) obstacles. Additionally, this expansion takes the pressure off
winterizing the Art Studio or adding another bathroom to 2664 Miller, although those
additions would be needed in the future.
7. Next Steps:
- Approval from the board
- Confirm schedules and interest of current families
- Contact families on waiting list. It would be best to start with around 12 FT spots
filled in January. This would give us a revenue of $13,728. We can staff with two
full-time teachers and the Program Director can share time. This would have the
payroll percentage of 32.34%. Beginning with a small group of children would also give
the teachers time to settle into the new program and routine, and enable them to
provide higher quality care in the Fall 2016.
- The Preschool Expo is in late January so it would be great to have photographs etc.
from the Preschool to market with.
Collaboration, Morale and Green Apple Team Members
I have talked with current staff and they are all very excited about the proposed changes. We
will need to give current families some flexibility with choosing their preferred site. I
anticipate there will be two families with siblings who will definitely want to stay at 2664
Miller and we can accommodate them with our remaining 8 preschool spots.

Visual Supplement:
Current Classrooms at Green Apple:
Pips (1 yr olds) Sprouts (2 year olds) Saplings (3-5 yrs)
8 children 8 children 13 children
Classrooms at 2664 Miller with big preschoolers at 511:
Pips (1 yr olds) Sprouts (2 year olds) Saplings (3 yrs)
8 children 12 children 8 children
511 Big Preschool:
Saplings (ages 4-6) Treelings (Kindergarten)
20 children 8 children