Creating Early Childhood Center In Rego Park
Focusing on the little ones, Our Saviour Lutheran School in Rego Park will be changing its operations this September, according to the pastor of the church which operates the institution.
Pastor Matt Popovits of Our Saviour Lutheran Church told the Times Newsweekly that the parish school located on Woodhaven Boulevard off Furmanville Avenue will end classes from first through eighth grades at the conclusion of the current school year next month.
When Our Saviour reopens in September, Popovits stated, the school will be an early childhood center for students from three through six years old with nursery, universal pre-kindergarten (UPK) and kindergarten programs.
Our Saviour is the second Lutheran school in the Times Newsweekly’s coverage area set to adopt this educational format in the 2013-14 school year. As previously reported, St. John’s Lutheran School in Glendale announced to its community it would convert to an early childhood facility.
The decision was made at St. John’s Lutheran due in part to declining enrollment and higher expenses in recent years, and according to Popovits, it was those same factors which compelled Our Saviour to make a change in order to stay viable for years to come.
“We could have stayed open in our current model for a while longer, but we chose not to,” the pastor said, noting that the parish decided to pool its remaining resources into creating an early childhood facility affordable for families while also giving youngsters “an incredible leg up before they enter” the first grade.
“Early childhood education gives us the best opportunity to stay with the families we want to minister to and to meet the needs of the entire community,” Popovits added. In previously serving as pastor of a church in Houston, Tex., he noted, he had a hand in operating an early childhood center which served over 360 students and provided “an opportunity to really serve the neighborhood and make a connection with a lot of great families.”
Popovits hopes to duplicate that success at Our Saviour, which currently has an enrollment of about 120 students from kindergarten through eighth grade. The goal is to have between 60 and 75 students in the early childhood center next September, and to grow gradually thereafter; Popovits noted that he does not see the revamped school “getting too far over 125 students” in the future.
“We’re going with quality over quantity, knowing that quality will bring quantity later,” the pastor said. “Our goal is to get just over 100 in enrollment and make sure it is a stellar, top-notch experience” for both students and parents alike.
Should the Our Saviour early childhood program be successful, Popovits hopes to expand it to other areas of Queens which may be in need of such as facility.
Families of students currently enrolled in kindergarten and higher grades were informed of the change in February, Popovits said. Current students were referred to enroll at either Redeemer Lutheran School, located at 69-26 Cooper Ave. in Glendale (all classes through the eighth grade), or Martin Luther School, located at 60-01 Maspeth Ave. in Maspeth (grades six, seven and eight only).
Upper-grade teachers at Our Saviour are receiving a severance package and assistance in transferring to other educational institutions. Popovits noted that teachers in lower grades will be given the chance to apply for positions in the nursery, UPK or kindergarten programs, and the school “hopes to re-hire as many as possible.”
With the early childhood program only occupying a portion of the Our Saviour Lutheran School building, the pastor stated the church is looking to form partnerships with other local organizations to utilize available space as a community resource.
“Our goal is not to go away, but to reinvent,” Popovits stated. “We believe you don’t have to disappear as long as you’re willing to adapt. We’re going to stay in education and in ministry to families in the neighborhood, but we have to be open to looking differently than we had in the past 50 years.”
