SPECIAL SECTION
CAMP & SCHOOL GUIDE
East Valley JCC’s Early Learning Center includes
kindergarten starting next fall
SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
T he East Valley Jewish Community
Center (EVJCC) in Chandler opened
its Early Learning Center (ELC) in 1971
and currently has children anywhere from
6 weeks to 5 years enrolled. Next year, it
will add a kindergarten class for the 2023-
24 school year.

Pam Morris, ELC director, said that
after a number of inquiries from parents
with kids at the school about a kindergar-
ten option, it seemed like the right time
to add one.

Parents told her of their concerns when
it came to sending their kids from the safe
environment of the ELC to the big and
unknown world of public and charter
schools. They wondered if they would
have the same kind of close relationships
with new schools, teachers and even other
parents. Some parents whose children had
started at the ELC and gone on to a big-
ger school even complained to Morris
that the parents of their children’s new
classmates didn’t respond to the birthday
invitations they sent.

“This is a safe environment and their
children know it and feel comfortable,”
she said. Parents also appreciate the ELC’s
staff, which will add a new full-time kinder-
garten teacher. There will also be enrich-
ment programming including movement,
cooking, Israeli culture and Hebrew.

The new class will adhere to the ELC
standard of a student-teacher ratio of no
more than 1 to 12 and the curriculum will
be aligned with and utilize the Arizona
kindergarten standards. With the assis-
tance of the Arizona Tuition Connection,
the new kindergarten class will also be free
to those who apply.

The COVID-19 pandemic super-
charged parents’ fears and the ELC
became an even more protected and
prized space, Morris said.

“We’re a community and we found
we need to extend the community and
bridge the gap to that kindergarten year,”
Morris said. “We will continue with the
curriculum and get them ready for the
next stage of learning.”
The ELC is open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

weekdays with both options for before-
and after-school care. It also offers camps
during the summer and other breaks in
the school year.

“This is a one-stop shop for many par-
ents,” Morris said. Parents will now be
able to bring their kindergartener when
they drop off younger siblings and with
the after-school care, some will feel they
don’t ever have to leave 908 N. Alma
School Road,” she quipped.

With close to 30,000 square feet, the
EVJCC certainly has the space.

“Our pre-K children already have, on
average, somewhere between 50 and 75%
of the knowledge that they would need at
the end of kindergarten when they leave
our pre-K,” Morris said.

The new kindergarten class will adjust to
meet the students where they are and get
them to the next level by combining indi-
vidualized and differentiated instruction.

It won’t be the first kindergarten class
the EVJCC has ever had. Many years
ago, the East Valley Jewish Day School
operated a kindergarten through sixth-
grade program. With the blessing of
the EVJCC, it moved to the campus of
Temple Beth Sholom of the East Valley
in Chandler and became Desert Jewish
Academy. Morris said she isn’t looking to have a
day school, however, and there is no plan
to add a first grade.

“We’re looking at having a kinder-
garten and one more year of protected
community before the kids go off to a
bigger school.”
Pam Morris poses in front of a classroom door at the East Valley JCC.

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asks parents to have a relationship with
other parents and families but also to call
and alert her staff if their child is out sick
or visiting a grandparent.

“We straddle both worlds of daycare
and school,” she said.

She’s excited about providing this safe
haven for parents. It also brings back
good memories from when she was a
preschool teacher at the ELC and there
was a kindergarten.

“Being able to give that next stage of
learning to our children and that safety
and security for the parents — I think
that’s just so important,” she said. JN
Instead, this class is a way to soften
the transition from what the children
and their parents have known to the
unexpected. “It’s that kindergarten piece; it’s that
‘my child is still a baby and I’m gonna
put them on a bus?’ piece,” Morris said.

Parents aren’t necessarily ready only to
accompany their kids into school the first
day and then leave them in the schoolyard.

At the ELC, parents have an app that pro-
vides a constant connection with pictures
and communication throughout the day.

“Parents feel they can almost touch
their children’s hands with this access to
the teacher and then suddenly it gets cut
off and they’re not ready,” she said.

Still, the ELC is a school, and Morris
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