This past Monday morning, I arrived early at my desk to begin my regular, post-weekend ritual—putting my things away, checking the phone messages, reading my emails.  The first email I came upon was from a member of our school building’s condo board; some of you know that I have served on the Maritime’s condo board since CHP took ownership of our school space in 2004.  The email concluded with a congratulatory message—for being named the fifth-best preschool in New York City, as ranked by The New York Observer’s Scooter magazine.  I promptly emailed a thank-you and decided to find out what this news was all about!  Before logging off my email to start investigating, I received another another email message, saying that I could find a stack of the New York Observer Scooter magazines in the building’s lobby.

Magazine in hand, I found out that the New York Observer had ranked 160 of the top preschool, elementary, middle and high schools, both public and private, from the thousands of schools in New York City.  The Observer described its readership as based in Brooklyn and Manhattan, so the final list emphasizes these boroughs.  Schools were ranked on six dimensions:  buildings and facilities, faculty, culture and arts, curriculum, family involvement and athletics.  Rankings were compiled with the consultation of over 80 experts - school coaches, educational professionals and activist parents.  I was so proud to see that CHP was rated fifth overall on the list of preschools, with an “A” in all categories and an “A+” in Culture/Arts and Curriculum.

As an introduction to the list of preschool rankings, the title page read:

Preschools--They’re entrance points for the competitive world of NYC schools.  But for now, play-based, good times rule.  These are the schools you’ll want your littlest ones to attend to begin building the blocks towards higher education.

You can find the complete list of rankings here.

A big thank-you to the entire CHP community, past and present, for making our school what it is – a place where “play-based, good times rule!”