Page 12—SUSQUEHANNA TIMES
‘Love with proper guidance’ at Little People Day Care
Miss Rankin, director. of the education
A
conducts a summer kinderghrten class
Little People Day Care
School, R.D.3, Columbia, is
more than a babysitting
facility. The program, ac-
cording to owner/adminis-
trator Mary Jane News-
wanger, combines ‘‘lot’s of
love with proper education
and guidance.”
Mrs. Newswanger is very
proud of the school. “We
have a very creative pro-
gram at this Little People
School. Because my hus-
band and 1 own the school
we can be very lucrative
with the system.’
The Little People School
in Columbia is unique in
several ways. Due to the
high rate of shift work in the
Columbia and Marietta
areas, the school has an
evening program that runs
through 1 am. ‘“We are the
only Little People School
that offers such a program.
We have to offer the
evening program because of
the area we are serving. It’s
important for a child to
experience regularity. With-
out the evening program,
children of people working a
swing shift would have a
break in their education.
Now they can come to the
school regularly.”
The school, providing
services to children from
Marietta, Maytown, Colum-
bia, Wrightsville and
Mountville, also offers a
certified kindergarten pro-
Math is made fun at Little People Day Care Center.
Here a student learns how tall she is with a very inviting
wall chart.
al program at Little People Day Care School,
gram. Students receive
kindergarten credit by at-
tending the Little People
school.
There are presently four
certified teachers at the
Columbia facility, with a
fifth teacher planned for the
fall. All teachers are college
graduates who have degrees
in either early childhood
education or elementary
Mrs. Carol Wenger te
aches younger children at the Day Care School. Here the
students are learning to color inside of the lines.
education and they are state
certified. Little People Day
Care School is licensed by
the Department of Educa-
tion, division of private
academic schools.
Mrs. Newswanger is es-
pecially proud of the outside
programs, or field trips,
offered by her school.
Students three years and up
participated in a learn-to-
swim program at Golden
Meadows Pool, Lancaster.
The lessons were held at the
indoor pool, two days a
week. Students graduated
as bullfrogs or polliwogs.
The children also visited
Pizza Hut where they were
allowed to make pizzas.
They made sundaes at a
Carvel Ice Cream Store and
begged to bring back
August 13, 1980
spiders, snakes and mice
from the Long Park petting
zoo. The children also
visited the Lancaster County
Park and enjoy almost daily
the park located directly
behind the school. ‘‘We
conduct nature hikes and
use the park for picnics and
fun,” Mrs. Newswanger
[continued on page 5]
le JLo rry
ceell foe re
2
School records for East
Donegal Township, dating
back to 1834, were recently
discovered at the Donegal
School District. After
gathering dust in a forgotten
file for
handwritten records reveal
instance, early
their own school house,
desks and benches.
The first teacher, M. T.
Simpson, was paid only $30
a month—but he apparently
the year—January, Febru-
ary and March.
Sertay Se
JL oorecgd of Mariatta al
Ml iis nl FH ln Lo HY,
Arter
150 years, the
some interesting facts: for
teachers
were expected to supply
taught only three months of
re 2 of
U3? ry
aA Yee
LA
7 WW Shed ‘1
Taneats -wloe Ale Ar yais Marcotte
Fe irri Ale cl plnl Lk Todor
/7 i of Soff foes
Lad SL
2 0 tlle oo)
Al pfs
LA€L PF? ey! lee,
9 /
a ie J
JL. 2 »20¢ ide, Sb Socrnas
Aze A 7g tect Zo of eee wi err, Heel agama
77
Art Jaca Hai
Education was free, un-
less the student wanted to
learn Latin, in which case he
or she had to shell out $2.
The total budget for the
township schools, in 1834,
was $2,393. There were
three schools in Marietta,
two in Mount Joy, two in
Maytown, and one each at
the Donegal Meeting
House, at Ziegler’s, at
Hiestand’s, and in Spring-
ville.
Segregation became of-
ficial policy in 1837, when
Ruface Childer was hired to
teach ‘‘the colored children
of Marietta.” Poor Mr.
Childer made only $5 a
month, a sixth what the
white, male teachers made.
An 1839 decision to
extend the school year to
five months may have
generated some contro-
versy. For whatever reason,
more than a third of all
taxpayers voted to eliminate
the whole school system, in
1840.
The schools, however,
survived. Teacher salaries
were standardized at $30 for
white men, $20 for white
females and negroes.
By 1850, the salaries had
dropped to $22 a month for
Sample of ornate writing from one of the East Donegal Township record books uncovered recently
East Donegal Township school records
back to year 1834 uncovered recently
males and $17 for females.
In 1870, the idea of a
Donegal School District was
abandoned, and each muni-
cipality took over its own
schools. However, a joint
“‘colored’’ school was pro-
posed. It was eventually
voted down.
Donegal School District,
having disappeared in 1870,
did not exist for seventy
years. It reappeared in the
1940’s, when the state
began encouraging school
consolidation.
Meanwhile, the school
year had gotten a lot longer,
teacher salaries had risen,
and taxes had soared.