30 Years ago...

• Gerald R. Ford was president.
• A first-class stamp cost 13 cents.
• The U.S. celebrated its Bicentennial.
• Cincinnati won the World Series.
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest won the Oscar for Best Picture.

And  – The Roosevelt Island Day Nursery was born!

In 1976, a group of Roosevelt Island parents worked together to start a much needed pre-school on the Island. For the first three years, the school functioned under the umbrella of the Good Shepherd School and went through three different directors. In 1979, the school was incorporated into the Roosevelt Island Day Nursery (RIDN). Sara Seiden, who had run her own nursery school in Forest Hills, and was running a day-care center at Kingsboro Community College, saw an ad in the newspaper looking for the right person to run this promising school and help Roosevelt Island build a community. Sara was the person chosen to make this a real community school. For 26 years she ran RIDN. She was essential to making the school into the wonderful place it still is today.

The Day Nursery was first located in 545 Main Street with three classrooms, and two additional classrooms in what were then known as the Blackwell School buildings. When Manhattan Park opened in 1989, the school had seven classes. In 2000, the school moved to 4 River Road where it is today.

Since the school opened in 1976, Roosevelt Island has been through many changes, and there have been other options for day care and pre-school, but the Day Nursery stands out from anything else the Island offers. Its quality is certified by the National Association for Education of Young Children (NAEYC), whose accreditation indicates that RIDN meets the highest standards in cognitive, emotional, and social development. The head teachers are all highly qualified; each holds a Master’s degree in early childhood education.

The Day Nursery’s goal is to help children grow emotionally, socially and intellectually in a warm and supportive environment which reflects the best features of our ethnically, culturally, racially, and economically diverse Roosevelt Island community. The aim of the preschool program is to provide young children with well-supervised work and play experiences that will prepare them for kindergarten. The school also provides guidance in assessing any special needs children might have.

RIDN continues to thrive due in part to much support over the years from the Roosevelt Island

 Operating Corp (RIOC) and the Agency for Children’s Services (ACS). A large part of the school’s funding comes from Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) funding which is provided by the Department of Education. There is also added support from alumni families and friends of the Day Nursery.

Joshua Resnick started Pre-School at RIDN in 1979. His mother, Terri Dancik, was very active in the school and had a hand in hiring Sara Sieden as the director. Josh’s younger brother, Seth, started at the Day Nursery in 1982, and their twin brothers, Jed and Micah, started in 1987. Each of the Resnick boys went from pre-school through kindergarten at RIDN.

Their father, Dr. Jack Resnick, says, "The Day Nursery was central to our lives on Roosevelt Island. Sara Seiden created a warm, caring environment that let our children thrive. Each of my four sons still counts one of his early childhood peers  among his closest friends."

Joshua, now 30, is an emergency room doctor and part of a venture capital firm specializing in health care. He and his wife Elana, and their baby daughter Nicole, live in Boston, Mass. Seth, now 27, graduated in June from the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and is currently a resident in psychiatry at Bellevue Hospital here in New York. Jed, 21, is on leave from his senior year at Brown University. He is on the road with the national tour of the Broadway musical, Rent, in which he plays one of the lead roles. Micah, also 21, is also on leave from his senior year at Brown. He is working on a kibbutz in Israel.

In 1982, after researching pre-schools in Manhattan, Rita Meed enrolled her first daughter Jessica at RIDN. "Unlike most schools in New York, there was no pressure about admissions, which helped create a wonderful atmosphere," says Meed. "It was an exceptional school. They took kids from all over the world and fit them into a community." Meed remains friends today with the people she met through the Day Nursery.

When her daughter Chava was enrolled at the school in 1985, Meed remembers there being 15 countries represented in her daughter’s class. "I loved the pot luck dinners where there were so many dishes from all different countries," she recalls, "and the teachers were very devoted and caring. Not to mention, there couldn’t have been a better location in the world for our children’s school." Now 24, Chava is teaching second grade at the Heschel School, and she was accepted for a Master’s program at Fordham University. Jessica Meed, 27, got her Master’s degree in public health at Baruch College, and is now a PhD candidate at N.C. Chapel Hill. Their younger brother Jonathan, who attended the Day Nursery starting in 1995, is now a freshman at Stuyvesant High School.

Bobbie Slonevsky remembers why she sent her son Alex, then 3, to RIDN in 1982. "The school had a very good reputation, both for the internationalism, and the preparation for grammar school. They also did incredibly creative things with the children.

"I remember a project – they took the children out for a walk on the Island every day, and then they mapped out where they walked. Then, the children built a replica of the Island based on their explorations, with blocks, cardboard, leaves, etc. They even reconstructed the Tram! It was quite exceptional."

Alex, now 26, is a graphic designer working in Soho. Hara Slonevsky, 23, is completing her undergraduate degree at Hunter College. Hara started at the Day Nursery in 1985. She still has her cookbook from the school, and she remembers making all the recipes. Hara says her favorite memory from the Day Nursery is "Mommy Marcia."

Marcia Ellis started working at RIDN as an assistant teacher in 1984, and she has been there ever since. "Marcia is such a significant part of our community. She is always cheerful and upbeat, and all the children adore her," said Lynn Marfey, the current Day Nursery Board chair and mother of Day Nursery alumni Aren, room C student Jason, and future Day Nursery student Dylan. Ellis, originally from Jamaica, had been living in Nairobi for 12 years where she began working in pre-schools when her own children were enrolled. When asked what has kept her at the Day Nursery for 22 years, Ellis replied, "I just love the environment. It’s so good and nurturing. And I could never leave the children. I absolutely love each and every one of them."

Vicki Garavuso started teaching at RIDN in 1979, her first head teaching position after finishing her Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education. She stayed at the Day Nursery until 1989 when she left to get her second Master’s degree in Educational Leadership. Garavuso is currently working for City College at the Center for Worker Education. She is head of the undergraduate Early Childhood Program. She says RIDN is special because it really puts children and families first. "The faculty is highly educated, and they are on the cutting edge of good practice. They are consistently developing themselves and bettering themselves."

Garavuso explains that early childhood education is very different from other types of education, and that it is important to have teachers who are specialists in the field. "Not all pre-schools have such specialists," Garavuso states. She says she even brings her own college students to RIDN to observe "because it’s so wonderful." Garavuso’s own daughters, Vivianna and Peri Pignetti both attended the Day Nursery. Vivi, 25, attended the school from 1985 to 1987. She has traveled extensively in Europe, Asia and South America since graduating from NYU in 2003, and is now applying to graduate school for Psychology. Peri, 21, attended the Day Nursery from 1988 to 1991. She is a student at the University of Vermont. She is currently in Urbino, Italy studying Italian. Peri has remained close to many of the friends she made at the Day Nursery.

Valentina Lugo is one of the friends Peri Pignetti is still in touch with. Lugo remembers learning how to read while she was at RIDN. Her early education started her on her path that has led her to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she was granted a full scholarship. Lugo, 20, is currently a Junior at MIT. She is majoring in Aerospace/Astronautical Engineering.

Pat Sememza began teaching at RIDN in 1980, which was her daughter Adrienne’s second year at the school. She had just completed her Master’s in early childhood education at Bank Street College. Semenza was at the Day Nursery for 8 years. She then taught kindergarten at PS 217 for eleven years before retiring. Her retirement didn’t last long, however. After only a few months, she was asked to sub for a week or two at the Day Nursery. This is Semenza’s third year back at the school. "I love everything about the school," she says. "It’s a wonderful place to work. I love how the teachers respond to each other, and how they respond to the children. It’s a wonderful place to be."

Adrienne, 30, graduated from Laboratory Institute of Merchandising in New York. She is working for a company that gives jobs to people in need, in Jacksonville, Florida.

Ruhi Kabir, Semenza’s assistant teacher in the Pre-K class at the Day Nursery, also returned after a long absence. Kabir started teaching at RIDN in 1987, the same year that her son Shahryar started pre-K. She was at the Day Nursery for three years before her family moved to Iran and then to Europe. Kabir taught for 6 years at the International School in Vienna. In 1997, she moved back to Roosevelt Island, and returned to the Day Nursery. When asked why she came back to the school, Kabir replied, "I love the philosophy of the school, and I love the people – both the staff and the families. The school is very open to new ideas, which makes it very special." Shahryar, 21, will graduate this year with a degree in economics from Hamilton College in Clinton NY.

Helke Taeger is the administrator at RIDN. She began working in the office in 1986, when her younger daughter Kitri Miller was enrolled at the school, and she has been at the Day Nursery for 20 years. "At first I stayed at the school because it was so convenient for me – with my children being at school there, and then at the public school on the Island. But I really like the work, I like the people I work with, and I really like the kids," says Taeger. "I have seen amazing changes in the school over the years; there are fewer kids per classroom, there is a floater teacher who is active in all of the classrooms, and the teachers at the Day Nursery are top caliber. In the early years, Roosevelt Island was a very exotic destination for most people (teachers), but Sara worked incredibly hard to make this a top-notch nursery school, and she succeeded," she adds. Taeger’s older daughter, Piri Miller, 28, attended RIDN from 1981 through 1985. She is now attending Welsley College on a full scholarship, and will graduate next year with a degree in Psychology and Philosophy. Her sister Kitri, 23, will graduate from SUNY/Stonybrook in May with a double major in Psychology and Biology, and a minor in English. She plans to go to graduate school and get a PhD in Physical Therapy.

One of the truly unique qualities of the school has always been its internationalism. "We have had students from so many countries around the world," says Seiden. "Off the top of my head I can remember: Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Columbia, Holland, Japan, China, Korea, Morocco, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iceland, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Somalia, Kazakhstan, Egypt, Bangladesh, Yugoslavia, Serbia, Pakistan, India, Cameroon, Mali, Mongolia, Rwanda, Angola, Djibouti, Bolivia, Namibia, Peru, Korea, and Finland."

Alex Gherardi was enrolled at RIDN in 1988, two years after his older brother Robert started, and two years before his younger brother Sebastian started. The Day Nursery is where Alex first met his best friend, Kei Kurobe, the second of five siblings from Japan who also attended the school. In 1996, the Kurobe family moved from their apartment in Island House back to Japan. Kei missed the States and his friend Alex. In 2001, Kei moved back to Roosevelt Island to live with the Gherardi family so he could finish school. Alex, now 20, went on to get a scholarship to the State University at Stony Brook, where he is now a junior. Kei, also 20, is currently in San Francisco where he attends a cooking college. This summer, Alex and Kei will travel to Japan together. It will be Alex’s first trip to Japan.

In 1989, Jeanne Raichle, a Roosevelt Island resident, had just received her Master’s degree in early childhood education when she visited the Day Nursery. She was very impressed with the school’s staff, as were they with her, and she began an eleven-year stint as a head teacher there. In 2000, she went back to Bank Street to get her Master’s in special education. She is now working as a Special Education Itinerant Teacher (SEIT) in New York City. Raichle has been in a lot of pre-schools in the City, and according to her, RIDN is one of the best. "The curriculum is developmentally appropriate, which is so important, and not so common. And the teachers know how to talk to the children. They allow them to be who they are, yet they appropriately challenge them."

Dana Cotton (then Harary) grew up on the Island, and in 1989 she began her career at RIDN as an assistant teacher and a floater. She taught at the Day Nursery for six years, except for one year at another school. She came back when she realized, as she puts it, "No place could compare with the Day Nursery." She remained at the school until 1995 when she gave birth to her first daughter. Cotton returned to RIDN in 2001 when she started an Introduction to Pre-School program. This program continues to run at the Day Nursery. Cotton’s two daughters, Alexis (11) and Victoria (8) also attended RIDN for Pre-School. Cotton is currently enrolled in a dual degree graduate school program working towards a Master’s degree in Science Education from Bank Street College and a Master’s in Social Work from Hunter College School of Social Work.

Barbara Packer said that she moved to Roosevelt Island so her children could live in a neighborhood where they could walk to school and develop relationships with the other children in their community. Rachel Packer started at the Day Nursery in 1981, and her sister Hillary started in 1986. According to Barbara, "The school provided a warm and supportive environment where the children could explore their worlds. It gave them a great head start." Rachel, 28, is a graduate of the University of Miami. She is living in San Francisco and works for the Lymphoma/Leukemia Society. Hillary, 23, graduated from the University of Michigan, and is living in New York and working for the Civilian Complaint Review Board.

"We are the people who stayed on Roosevelt Island and decided not to move largely because we studied pre-schools and didn’t find any with the same quality and the same level of diversity as RIDN," says Julia Ferguson, who was active in the school along with her husband Jerome Dutilloy, while their two daughters attended from 1998 through 2005. Sarah, now in middle school at the United Nations International School (UNIS), benefited greatly from her two years at the Day Nursery, according to her mother. "She loved the music and movement classes with Sarah Seiden and Debbie Orenstein, and is still active in music today.’’ Laura, in kindergarten at UNIS, "showed a quantum leap in her development," according to Ferguson. "In fact, she was helped in learning French because of the open and active awareness of home languages fostered in the school." Ferguson is grateful to the Day Nursery because "it was an international pre-school that gave both of our children a very solid foundation in early language development, social and emotional skills, pre-reading, pre-writing and number sense. It also provided a community base of friends with whom my children will be in touch throughout their lives."

Ellior Marcus started at RIDN in 1986. In 2002, her Day Nursery class had a reunion. Her mother, Nurit Marcus, had this to say, "The Roosevelt Island Day Nursery, with its gentle and soft approach and teaching techniques, provided a safe and enriching learning environment in which the children strengthened their ties. As parents, we were happy to have such a solid social and educational base for our children. No wonder that so many of these young adults are still close friends today!" Ellie, 23, after serving in the Israeli army for two years, is currently completing her degree in Political Science at Tel Aviv University.

Bufi Kommatas has been a teacher at RIDN since 1990. She began as a part time floater when her daughter Demie began her second year at the school. In 1991, she started as an assistant teacher. "I have so much fun working at the Day Nursery," says Kommatas. "It’s so great to watch the children grow, and see them all grown up on Main Street." Demie, 21, is a junior at Middleberry College in Vermont. She is majoring in international studies and political science.

There is currently only one teacher at the Day Nursery who is new at the school. Jasie Britton returned to head teaching this year after doing professional development (i.e. teaching teachers) at Bank Street College for four years. "I love the diversity of the Day Nursery," says Britton, "and I love the sense of community between the staff and the families. It’s really something."

Britton’s assistant teacher in Room B is Sali Pitanga. Pitanga started at RIDN in 2001 as a substitute, and then she taught the Introduction to Pre-School class. In 2002 she worked as a floater. She left to teach at a school in Manhattan for a couple of years, and was very disappointed. "I thought all schools were like the Day Nursery. Once I left, I realized I was wrong. When I heard the Day Nursery had an open position for this year, I came right over and begged to come back," she says with a laugh. According to Pitanga, the diverse population at the Day Nursery and the teaching philosophy can’t be matched anywhere. "I am so excited to be back here."

Debra Orenstein started a movement program at RIDN in 1995, the same year that her son Seth Vacirca was enrolled at the school. "The teachers were certified and dedicated and they were so wonderful," Orenstein remembers. "They were my colleagues as well as my son’s teachers. The care that went on there – heart, soul, body and kishkas was above and beyond the call of duty." Orenstein also remembers how the school incorporated families into their curriculum, "I’ll never forget my Italian father-in-law coming to the school to make pizza with the kids. My son never forgot it either."

The current director of RIDN is Diana Carr. According to Orenstein, "Diana is incredible. I worked as a SEIT at the school more recently. Diana’s energy level never wanes. I have seen how the teachers have each child work to their own full potential. Every child is on task with what is developmentally appropriate to them. I can’t imagine a better place to send your child."

After eleven years as a teacher at RIDN, Carr has taken on the additional responsibility of director. It is the first time anyone has held both positions. Carr says it is both challenging and gratifying. "Sara created a very strong school with a very strong program. There is a feeling at the school that everyone is committed to the school and committed to the families. It’s a wonderful feeling to come to school where the things that are valued are the things that should be valued," she says. "And the community is unique. There are people from all over the world who come together and are so open to the community experience." Carr says that by the time their children finish the program, people really feel connected to the school. She says it feels really different from any other school. "Parents are constantly commenting on how wonderful it is that their children make friends with children from so many different cultures."

Carr also acknowledges the support that has been given to the school, "We understand that it’s become more and more difficult for families to afford quality programs for their young children, and it’s heartening to know that there are organizations such as RIOC and our other funding sources that recognize that need and are willing to make a commitment to the children."

Since RIDN opened in 1976, there have been approximately 2000 children enrolled in the school. For 30 years, families have joined together in this unique community that the Day Nursery has provided. There are such wonderful memories of all the alumni, and such warm feelings toward the school and the staff. Their hope is that the Day Nursery will continue to bring a wonderful educational experience to families for many, years to come.