Director'sWelcome
I want to welcome you to The Medical Center Nursery School’s informative and enlightening Website.  Although it is only a window into the wonders and excitement that pervades the school, it will provide you with both an introduction and an ongoing guide to the school’s rich and comprehensive program for young children.

MCNS provides a nurturing and child-centered environment where a diverse group of students and teachers plays, learns, and grows together.   The beautiful facility, with light and airy classrooms, provides the perfect setting for children’s activities and an exciting bridge between children’s families and homes and the much larger world beyond.

MCNS will be a significant part of your child’s educational career and will provide an important foundation for later learning and experiences.   It is hoped that children will develop the ability to approach the world with confidence and self-reliance, will internalize the skills necessary for beneficial and dynamic socialization with others, and will cultivate the ability to think and analyze and learn in productive and creative ways.

I trust that the Website will open the MCNS world to you and will continue to be a helpful and beneficial tool to inform and update you about the program and the school community.

Thank you for your ongoing interest in the school.

Most sincerely,


Howard E. Johnson
Director

Board of Trustees

 

 

ourMission

The Mission of The Medical Center Nursery School, an early childhood school affiliated with and supported by Columbia University, is to provide a secure, nurturing, developmentally appropriate educational setting for children aged two to six.

We serve children from the following communities: Columbia University; New York Presbyterian Hospital; the New York State Psychiatric Institute; and northern Manhattan neighborhoods, specifically the Washington Heights and Inwood.

Our school, with expansive views of the Hudson River and the George Washington Bridge, is on Level B1 of Bard-Haven Tower 1, a multi-use building located at the Columbia University Medical Center in Washington Heights.


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We provide a secure, educational setting in which young children can participate in a wide range of learning activities, investigate a large number of developmentally appropriate materials, and experiment with a variety of stimulating creative media outside their own home, with their peers, and with experienced and caring non-parental adults.

our Program

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Donations

The Medical Center Nursery School is a registered 501(3)(c) non-profit organization. Donations to the school are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law. Donations allow us to provide financial aid, program enrichment and maintain the ongoing operations of the school.

There are several ways to make a gift to The Medical Center Nursery School: 


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MCNS encourages networking and participation in professional organizations, which allow the staff to receive and share relevant ideas and information and learn more about current trends, events, and policy in the early childhood field.   Either the school or staff members are affiliated with the following professional associations:


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MCNS is licensed by the New York City Department of Health and mental Hygiene.  License renewal occurs every two years.  The school also is registered with the New York State Education Department.  Registration, voluntary for early childhood programs in New York City, extends for five years.  The school was accredited in June 1991 by the Academy for Early Childhood Program Accreditation, a division of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).  It was re-accredited in 1994, 1997, 2001, and 2008.

The school was organized in 1955 by a small group of CUMC-affiliated parents with young children, supported by The Presbyterian Hospital’s Auxiliary.   It was planned as a half day parent cooperative program with an advisory board made up of Auxiliary members and prominent physicians.  The first students were enrolled in October 1957 when the school opened in a small, ground-floor apartment on West 165th Street, between Broadway and Fort Washington Avenue.   Seventeen children attended during the first year.  In 1971, when the Bard-Haven Towers were completed by Columbia University, the school moved to its present facility, a space designed for young children in Tower 1.

During the first fourteen years of the school’s existence, it remained a parent-cooperative, with several teacher-directors guiding the program.  Since 1972 there have been three full-time directors.  The current head of the school, Howard Johnson, has served since 1978.  Linda Soleyn is the current Assistant Director.During the 1970's and early 1980's the school evolved from a parent cooperative into a program with an independent Board of Trustees in charge of the school's financial stability and long-range planning, the Director and staff responsible for the school's operational program, and parents responsible for fund-raising and social events.

In 1988 the first Educational Consultant was added to the school staff to be responsible for staff development and supervision and to ensure an appropriate early childhood curriculum throughout the school.  The current Educational Consultant is Liege Motta.