October 6, 2005

Marlin Newell, the new director of the Community Children’s Center, playing with Elyssa Archambault, left, and Alyna Kuptz, at the center earlier this week.

By Diane Chiddister

Significant changes are taking place at the Community Children’s Center, including the hiring of a new director, a new program for preschoolers and a restoration of facilities financed by a major fund-raising effort.

“We’re at a crossroads,” said Sean Creighton, the president of the Children’s Center board of directors. “We’re strengthening the agency, moving it forward.”

At the end of August, the board hired Marlin Newell, a longtime teacher at the center, as its new director. Newell had served for the last year as interim co-director, along with Lori Clouse.

The board sought a new director who is a good fit with the center’s culture, Creighton said, adding that Newell was not only a good fit, but that she helped to create that culture.

“She knows the center inside and out,” he said, describing Newell as a “sincere, authentic” person who has been beloved by the children in her classroom as well as by their parents.

Newell said she brings to the Children’s Center a commitment and a passion for its mission.

“I have an enthusiasm for the Children’s Center that’s essential. I have a history here and a deep and abiding faith in the importance of the center in this community,” she said.

Newell came to the Children’s Center 16 years ago, when she quickly moved from substitute teacher to aide to head teacher in a toddler room, she said. Newell still gets excited when she talks about why she loves spending her days with the smallest of villagers.

“You learn something every single day. Those children teach you something you didn’t know,” she said. “And you get such unconditional love. No matter how down you’re feeling, you forget that when you’re in the classroom. They’re such a wonder.”

Newell said her work with small children actually began 30 years ago, when she “was lucky enough to be a stay-at-home mom.” She opened a home day care center in the Circleville area, where she lived, and, when she later moved to Springfield, she saw an ad for the Children’s Center and applied.

Now, Newell describes herself as “a total grandma,” and the bulletin board in her office, covered with photos of her 14-month-old granddaughter, proves her point.

Her love for young children only partly explains why she stayed so long at the Children’s Center, Newell said. She also stayed because she believes the Children’s Center is an exceptional agency.

“They have had such wonderful teachers and role models,” she said. “There is such a sense of family here, in each classroom and outside as well. This is an amazing place.”

Currently, the center’s teaching staff includes former Children’s Center director M.J. Richlen, who has over 18 years of experience at the center; preschool teacher Marcia Greer, who has worked for nine years at the center; toddler teacher Marcia Nowik, in her fourth year; and new teachers Chris Harford, Kari McGee and Lindsey Hardiman.

The center includes classes for toddlers beginning at 18 months to 3 years old, for preschool students, and also provides a before- and after-school program for school-age children.

About 60 children are enrolled at the center, which will celebrate its 60th anniversary next year. Since its inception the Children’s Center has subscribed to a play-based philosophy that emphasizes the importance of play in children’s learning, and the belief that a teacher’s role is to facilitate that play, Newell said.

The teachers work hard to provide a nurturing atmosphere in their classes, Newell said.

“Many children spend eight or 10 hours a day here, and they try hard to provide a homelike, loving space,” she said.

This fall the Children’s Center launched a new preschool program, the Early Learning Initiative, which is a collaborative effort with the Greene County Educational Services Center and the Yellow Springs schools.

Funded by a state grant, the program offers two preschool classes, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, which are taught by Janice Kumbusky. The classes emphasize thematic learning for young children and promote educational accountability, according to Creighton.

The two classes have spaces for a total of 20 children, and all but one of those spaces are filled, Newell said. Fourteen of the spaces are income-eligible, and the other six are private-pay spots, she said.

Beginning last spring, the Children’s Center launched an $80,000 fundraising campaign aimed at restoring older parts of the center’s facility on Corry Street. According to Creighton, so far, the Children’s Center has received $53,000 in contributions, including a grant from the Morgan Family Foundation to rehab two bathrooms and several playgrounds, and a $20,000 grant from the Yellow Springs Community Foundation to replace the center’s roof, a project that will take place this fall. The bulk of the contributions have been received from donations by board members and a fundraising campaign, said Creighton. He said The Antioch Company has also committed to helping.

Beyond the restoration of the almost 60-year-old bathrooms and a roof, the Children’s Center hopes to make come true a “dream of having a beautiful play area,” Creighton said. That dream includes new landscaping, new fences and new play equipment, Newell said.

The new efforts are aimed at “moving a long established center into the future,” Creighton said.

Contact: dchiddister@ysnews.com