Nursery school keeps students engaged

LYNN – It is a busy life for the students and teachers of Busy Bee, the Severance Street preschool that is shaking up the idea of traditional nursery schools.”We never want to be the teacher who takes out the September folder each year and does the same thing,” said Ashley Pierce, who along with Sarah Treiber, co-owns the preschool. “In fact, we don’t even keep folders because we want to do everything new.”Pierce and Treiber met while teaching preschool in Marblehead and immediately clicked.”Our director took a chance and put us in a room together, which ended up being amazing,” Treiber said.”We had to promise not to get in trouble,” Pierce chimed in. “I think they were afraid of our energy.”That classroom collaboration led to a plan to open a school of their own that took more than a year plus a hero and a lot of help to make happen.”We never could have done this on our own,” Pierce said.Although they found the property, quickly getting a loan to purchase was another story. In stepped Pierce’s uncle, John Olson, owner of Columbia Insurance.”(Olson) backed us,” Pierce said. “He helped us come with a business plan and he financed us. He took a risk.”If the prospect of not getting the property was disheartening, the realization that it was actually going to happen was downright terrifying, Pierce admitted.Friends and family pitched in and helped the women gut the two-story building and turn the once tired room into a bright, welcoming and, well, busy space, which can house up to 34 students at a time. Banked by long rows of windows on both sides the main room is lined with cubicles, low shelves and play areas. A cozy corner filled with pillows and a giant leafy awning takes up one corner and “A Day in a Life” spells out exactly what students can expect to happen each day and at what time. Mornings for the students, who range in age from 2.9 years old to 6, are structured. A recent lesson had children learning about Africa and resulted in a project that raised $340, enough to buy one goat, a pig and two flocks of chickens for families who live there.Treiber said from the start the goal was to target working families and they do it by staying open during school vacations, snow days and summer, times when traditional nursery and preschools often close. A second, equally important goal was to make the programs interactive and interesting, Pierce added.”We wanted parents to know if they put their kids there all day they were going to be learning and dipping their hands into all kinds of different things,” she said.Some of those things include decidedly non-traditional enrichment classes, like hip-hop, Russian or Spanish lessons, a cooking club, fitness and journaling for the older kids.Summer will bring programs like “Music and Meadow,” a weeklong music camp that will take students outside into nature to sing.”We keep busy and we kind of step outside the box,” Treiber said.They are also busy building relationships with parents, focusing on communication and flexibility.”I used to hate it when I would pick up my daughter and ask her what she did in school and she’d say ?nothing,'” Treiber said. “We are constantly posting updates on Facebook, everything goes out there so parents know what their kids are doing.”Pierce said parents also have unfettered access to them as well through cell phones, email, or by dropping in, which doesn’t always happen in traditional school settings.”We will always take a phone call or take time to speak with a parent,” she said.The adventure has not come without a big learning curve, but Treiber and Pierce said despite the amount of paperwork, licensing worries and inspections they have dealt with, “it’s worth it.””We’re doing everything, but we have to have our hand in everything at least for now,” Treiber said. “We’re coming up on six months (anniversary) and we just love it.””For the first time I’m excited to come to work everyday,” Pierce said. “I love being here.”