Historical March 1996 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Rose Flynn, an 18 year resident of Skinker DeBaliviere, has assumed the responsibilities of Director of the St. Roch pre-school.
She brings strong qualifications to the position, having worked at the Grace Methodist Pre-School and One United Methodist Pr eSchool as well as at St. Roch. Besides her extensive work experience in early childhood learning, she also has formal training in graphic design.
She felt prepared for the new challenge at St. Roch because of her work with Delores Hoefel and Jan Parker, two strong center directors.
She also worked closely with the late Wilma Cantwell, St. Roch’s first pre-school director when she taught at St. Roch in the early 1990s. Cantwell’s untimely death left a tremendous void at the church and the pre-school. But, the pre-school was on very sound footing and can look forward to growth and more achievements. Flynn also has put on Storytime at Grace Methodist and later at the Kingsbury Kiosk.
She herself is the parent of two teenagers and the Flynns live on 59xx Pershing.
Her husband actually grew up in our neighborhood and attended St. Roch School.
His parents live on McPherson. Currently, the St. Roch preschool enrolls 21 children. St. Roch has a very low teacher-student ratio: 1 to 5.
The legal requirement is 1 to 10.
The teachers at the school are Kathy Buckley and Roberta Asher. Mary Miklasz and Joan Cobb are aides.
The school offers a full-day program for four and five year olds and a morning program for three year olds. Registration is now taking place for next year. Interested parents can visit the school at 6040 Waterman and can call 721-5320 or 727-3405 to receive information or to talk with Mrs. Flynn about the program. Special features of the preschool include Spanish lessons by Georgi Fox and learning and activities based on special themes. Recently, the theme was space. Their “pretend corner” was turned into a space station and the children made consoles, planets, and stars.
The “pretend corner” changes every 2 weeks.
It has been a library, grocery store, and pet store. Bill Christman also made a fairy tale castle for the school and the children enjoy decorating its facade. Two pets reside there: Squeek, a guinea pig, and Jingo, a parakeet.
They also have some friendly hermit crabs. Flynn discussed the school’s philosophy. “We’re very interested in making sure young children have basic concepts under their belt before they go to kindergarten.
If they can get them here in our environment, they’ll have them forever.” She said that the school is concerned with social skills and language development. “These are universal needs for all young children.
We make sure the children get that during the crucial early years.” Flynn’s warm and positive presence certainly is a fine complement to the activities at St. Roch.
Original photograph caption
Rose Flynn. Photographer not credited.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, March 1996.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1996_03.pdf, printed page(s) 1; PDF page(s) 1.
