For students attending Zeta Queens Jamaica Elementary School, Sept. 2 was the first of many first days of school.
Kindergartners and first graders lined the hallways of the free charter school system’s newest campus, located in the heart of downtown Jamaica. Located at 159-26 Jamaica Ave, the Jamaica school is one of two Queens additions that opened to students on Sept. 2. The second Queens location is the Zeta Queens Elmhurst Elementary School, located at 55-30 Junction Blvd.
The Jamaica site is based on the second floor of the building, with a long hallway with brightly painted walls and spacious classrooms that hold 30 students. There are three kindergarten classrooms, two first grade classrooms, a dedicated room for music, an indoor gym and indoor soccer space and a dedicated science room. Classrooms are filled with bright banners and pictures, and on the doors are plaques showing the names and colleges that the teachers attended.
Each classroom has two teachers, including a head teacher and a resident teacher who collaborate on lesson plans and support students. The Jamaica campus currently enrolls kindergarten and first graders, with plans to grow grade levels yearly and eventually have a full-fledged K-12 school in a permanent building. Zeta has a total of 11 schools, and the Jamaica and Elmhurst campuses are the first schools to open since 2020.
Yolaine Arthur, principal of Zeta’s Jamaica campus, described the excitement she and her staff felt leading up to the first day of school and the official opening of the campus.
“Just meeting the different individuals from different walks of life, some have obviously some teaching experience from other schools, some are from out of state, I even have some teachers from our neighborhood, Jamaica, Queens, and a small handful that just graduated from college that are really excited to start their teaching journeys here at our school,” she said.
Arthur said that families were drawn to the elementary school for its phonics curriculum and specialty programs, including soccer, taekwondo and music.
”One of the [parents] told me that her [child’s] school is no longer teaching writing, or phonics, and that’s something that, at Zeta, we have a phenomenal, phenomenal phonics program. It’s actually called SFA, which is short for Success for All, and it’s a fantastic program that’s used across the country,” she said.
Arthur added that prospective parents also appreciated Zeta’s specialty programs, which are part of the students’ daily curriculum.
“It’s literally part of the day, along with it being part of a club, but just the specialty programs alone, families were fascinated. They wanted something different,” she said. “And so offering chess in kindergarten, Taekwondo, offering music is just exposure. Those are the things that they really were looking for when finding a school.”
Zeta also includes social-emotional learning practices in its daily curriculum, something Arthur says sets a classroom standard.
“It’s something that we do, not just as classroom teachers but as an organization. We start our day with meditation. Every classroom starts its day with meditation,” she said.
Students also have the opportunity to participate in weekly Circle Time, where they can share their emotions and work through their feelings.
“ They get to express how they’re feeling in the moment. Some kids may not be feeling well in the morning and they want to express it. Some may be feeling excited, but just getting them to verbalize the feeling that they have inside of them also helps them develop strong language. Also, it helps them understand not just their emotions, but the emotions of others,” Arthur said.
She added that Circle Time is also a crucial part of her meeting time with her teaching staff.
“ I lead Circle Time with my teachers. I create that safe space for them to know that… this is a big job, but also you’re humans,” she said. “There are other things that make you who you are. And it’s important for us to know those things about you so that we can support you, so that we can be a part of that, and that would cause more investment for you and our school community.”
Arthur has an extensive background in education. She’s worked for more than 15 years in NYC charter schools, ranging from teaching kindergartners and first graders to being an academic dean for a middle school and even an assistant principal for 10 years across multiple schools.
Arthur describes being back in Jamaica as a full-circle moment for her. She grew up traveling from her home in Brooklyn to Jamaica to spend time with her cousins on the weekends. To Arthur, being a founding principal means planting a seed for future generations.
“To be able to give back to a community that I know is just, there are no words for it. And to be a founding principal to create something new, it’s like planting a seed that will forever be there. Even way after I’m gone or my founding teachers may be gone,” she said. “We’re creating something in an environment that has never been there before, and we are gonna make it the best thing possible. And so it really means a lot to me to be able to come back to this community and give to this community because it is a community of high need.”
For local parent Anastaisya Coggins, Zeta’s social-emotional learning curriculum was a key factor in why she enrolled her son at the Jamaica campus. Coggins said that her 6-year-old son, who is on the autism spectrum and has ADHD, needs to be in a safe space where he can express all of his feelings.
“That is something that is important to me because with a child that is neurodivergent, you have to teach them how to self-regulate and regulate their emotions and their big feelings. So the fact that they start their day off with meditation and… telling the teachers how they’re feeling at the beginning of the day, I think that’s great for kids to express that first thing in the morning,” she said.
Coggins added that she appreciates that the school is located in the center of downtown Jamaica.
“It’s dead center in the middle of Jamaica Center, so you can’t miss it. For you to have this different type of school focused on the whole child, to be right in the midst of a location that really needs a charter school… just to feel like you’re having that opportunity to send your child somewhere where they’re going to have the best outcome,” she said.
