Photograph by George Sakkestad
Continuing a 50-year tradition, Landon Cramer (left), substitute teacher Elayne Shuman, Peter Kenstowicz and his mom, Deborah Kenstowicz, work on an art project.
By Sue Fagalde Lick
It was 1946. World War II had just ended, and the postwar baby boom was in full swing. A small group of Los Gatos mothers met to explore a new type of nursery school for their toddlers, a school in which the moms would take turns helping at the school in exchange for affordable education.
Many meetings and fundraisers later, the Los Gatos Parent Nursery School was born. Laying claim to being the first co-operative parent nursery school in Santa Clara County, the new school was the beginning of a Los Gatos tradition.
The Los Gatos Parent Nursery School will celebrate its 50th anniversary May 27 from noon to 5 p.m. with a reunion at the school at 15 Lyndon Ave. Approximately 800 invitations have been mailed. Among those expected to attend are some of the original teachers, parents and students from the early days.
The organizers will close off Lyndon Avenue that day for a big block party, with a barbecue lunch by C.B. Hannegan's, DJ music by Carl Mindling, tours of the school and class reunions.
Although half a century has passed, the school remains a factor in the lives of former students and parent volunteers there, and the friendships that began at the school are still going.
Among the graduates are many familiar Los Gatos names: Baggerly, Knauf, Blackstock, O'Laughlin, DiNapoli, Cosentino, Sporleder, Benson, Cilker and others.
Birth of a School
Los Gatos parents first met to discuss the school in February 1946. From the beginning, the plan included asking parents to volunteer one day a week per child and requiring them to take parenting classes through the Los Gatos-Saratoga adult education program.
The school began in a temporary location on Glenridge Avenue but quickly grew too big for that site. A series of fundraisers, including a benefit show and a rummage sale that grossed $300, were held to raise money for a new school. The old Methodist Church parsonage at 15 Lyndon Avenue was chosen, and the school opened in late 1947.
In those days, as it does now, the school depended on donations. Benefactors provided phonograph records, wagons, tricycles and toy cars, orange crates to use for lockers, barrels and packing boxes for climbing equipment, and clay and paints for art activities.
A 1949 newspaper article talks of the children's daily activities, which were much like today's, including music, fingerpainting, poster paints, clay modeling, story time, outdoor play and naptime. In those pre-liberation days, the school had a "girl's corner," furnished with miniature household items, and a "boy's corner," filled with large building blocks and mechanical toys.
The school celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1966. Fifty-nine families were involved by then, with students divided into morning and afternoon sessions.
On Oct. 15, 1967, the school building was destroyed by fire. The blaze started in the kitchen and spread quickly through the building, which had been repainted just the day before. The school and everything in it burned. Two days later, a 14-year-old Los Gatos youth admitted starting the fire by setting papers on the electric stove and turning it on. He told police he blamed the school for having police force him to remove a treehouse nearby.
"It was horrible. I couldn't believe it," says Ruth Daval, a former director of the school, who watched as it burned. Among those fighting the fire was Doug Sporleder, a graduate of the school who is now chief of the Central Fire District.
Lacking a building, the parents and teachers took their students to Oak Meadow Park for classes. When winter set in, they made Faith Lutheran Church on Ferris Avenue their temporary headquarters.
After considering several new sites, they decided to rebuild at 15 Lyndon. The old building was insured for the $16,000 loss, but the school held another series of fundraisers to finish and refurnish the new $25,000 school. The architect was David Scott, a former member of the parent co-op.
The school reopened in the new building on Feb. 3, 1969 and has continued there ever since.
In addition to helping with the children, parents are required to participate in two maintenance days and two weekend cleanups each year. With an an average of 60 families involved each year, the school acquires a lot of free talent.
Point to the tambourines, triangles and other musical equipment, and senior director Heidi Bowman tells of a parent who loved music and taught the children to play. Admire the bins full of art materials, and Bowman relates how a resourceful parent turned grocery-store bins into storage areas where kids could help themselves to ribbons, colored paper and other supplies.
Those attending the reunion will find colorful new climbing equipment, freshly painted murals and other changes. "Every year it's improved," says Dru Barth, one of the current teachers, pointing to a new roof on the storage shed.
Moms become teachers
Volunteering at the school has led several of the preschool mothers into preschool teaching careers. Among them are Heidi Bowman and Barth.
The students range in age from 2.9 years to 5. The youngest start with two morning classes a week, and the oldest come for four afternoons. Their days are a combination of group activities, individual experimentation and free time outdoors.
"Children learn through play," Barth says.
Each day, six parents help the credentialed teachers with classes of 18 to 24 students. In the early days, these parents were exclusively mothers, but today, they often include a father or two and sometimes a grandmother. A number system tells the parents what area they will cover that day, whether it's supervising an art project, helping with snacks, telling stories or overseeing outdoor activities.
Lessons are prepared in advance, and the parents get plenty of guidance and support. The main requirement is that they be there. If a parent cannot come at her appointed time, she is responsible for finding a substitute. Among those they can call on are Georgette Farnady and Elayne Shuman, who both started as volunteer grandmas and continue as paid substitutes.
Farnady and Shuman are both ready to zoom to the school to take a shift whenever a parent calls. "When they call, I go," Shuman says.
Farnady, 89, says she loves to be around young people. Over the years, Farnady, a Hungarian immigrant, has often had former students come up to her and ask, "Georgette, do you remember me?" But they have grown up and look considerably different. "I don't change. I'm still an old lady who talks funny," she says.
Shuman, now in her 27th year with the school, says she loves to read to the children. She always embellishes the stories just a bit. Children are very imaginative, she says, and it's important to encourage them to use their imaginations.
Ruth Daval began working on fundraising projects for the school even before her daughter Nicola was old enough to go there. When Nicola turned 2 in 1948, "we both went to school," Daval says. She stayed through three kids, becoming interested enough to go back to San Jose State for her master's degree in early childhood and family counseling. Director of the school in the early 1960s, she went on to help establish other area preschools and continues as a teacher of new preschool teachers at De Anza College.
Daval's favorite activity with the kids was dance, and she shares her talent now as a member of the Dancing Grandmas Group, which performs at local convalescent homes and senior centers. She also plays with the Santa Clara Ukelele Band and the Old Smoothies.
"It's a wonderful place to work, says Nina Gerardi, whose stint as a parent volunteer led to 13 years as teacher and director. "I loved the experience so much I knew that preschool was where I wanted to be."
Eleanor Muench, who volunteered for 7 1/2 years at the school with her four kids, also chose a nursery school career. She was in charge of the nursery at the Los Gatos Presbyterian Church for 23 years, she says.
Another parent volunteer, Jimmie Dawson, spent many years at the Los Gatos Parent Nursery School with her four kids, including C.B. Hannegan co-owner Chris Benson. "I loved the naptimes," she chuckles.
She has many memories of special students, including the girl who was terrified of the fire bell that rang every day at noon and the one who had an imaginary friend. The parent classes were wonderful, too, she says, especially for new parents who knew very little about raising children.
Among the dads who have volunteered at the school is John Tolan, whose son Greg was a student there in the late 1980s. Being the only father volunteer, he put up with some jokes, but says gender wasn't really an issue. He took his turn at all the jobs, just like the moms. It was good spending time with his son. "I think he was proud of me being there," Tolan says.
Jeanette Allan Berry, a graduate of the early-childhood development program at West Valley College, started her career at the Los Gatos Parent Nursery school. When she later applied for a high-tech job, her employer said that if she could handle 60 parents and preschoolers, she could certainly supervise a department of adults.
Parents remain friends
Working together at the school, sharing carpools and watching their kids grow up together has linked many Los Gatos Nursery School parents in lifelong friendships.
"When you're sharing the same kinds of experiences, it's a special bond," says Barth, who found that most of last year's Grad Night committee at Los Gatos High School had worked together as preschool parents. It creates a group of people you know and trust, she says.
Among the old-timers from the early days were Barbara and John Baggerly, whose four children all went to the Los Gatos Parent Nursery School, starting in 1948. Barbara Baggerly stayed on as a substitute mom for several years. "A lot of our friends today are people we met at nursery school," she says
Many, including Baggerly, were members of the Flying Needles, a women's group that met once a month to sew together.
Jane Najour volunteered at the school from 1979 to 1988 while her four kids were students there. "The best thing about the school is the friendships the parents made," she says.
Mike O'Connor became a volunteer dad at the school when his family moved from Los Angeles to Los Gatos. While his wife worked full-time, he was a stay-at-home Mr. Mom for their three sons.
"It was time-consuming but real rewarding," O'Connor says. "Immediately we had a circle of friends. We made more good friends in six months through that nursery school than we did in seven years in Los Angeles."
Kids are still kids
Kids haven't changed much, most of the parents and teachers queried say, even though they called them Mr. or Mrs. in the old days and address them by their first names now. Bowman notes that many are unfamiliar with typewriters, phonograph records, cash registers or analog-dial clocks. On the other hand, they head for kindergarten knowing their letters, numbers and colors, with help from the school and programs they watch on television.
Barth worries that kids have so many organized activities, such as gymnastics, ballet lessons and organized sports, that they don't have time simply to play.
"They don't seem to play outside anymore," former parent volunteer Dorothy Creffield says. They watch TV and operate computers, but she misses seeing children play hopscotch, jacks, jumprope and other old-fashioned games.
Gender is an area where views have changed, although most of the school's teachers have always opted for equal treatment of boys and girls. "We believed that what was good for one was good for the other," Daval says. But she agrees that teachers can no longer talk about "boys' toys" and "girls' toys."
Safety standards have changed, too. When they go on their annual field trips to Vasona Park, the fire station, and other local attractions, they now line up a whole row of child car seats. Kids are required to wear helmets when they ride their tricycles.
But in many ways, nursery school is still nursery school. The kids play many of the same games they played 50 years ago. They break for snacks, often cooking their own, using vegetables grown in the garden in the playground.
They still like to fingerpaint, sing songs, climb and play with the school pets, including a rabbit and baby chicks.
"I think they're just as wonderfully innocent and hopeful as ever," Jimmie Dawson says.
All student and parent alumni are invited to bring photos and memorabilia to share at the reunion. Those planning to join in the barbecue should RSVP at 354-1433.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, May 1, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved