<\/p>\n
For a year and a half, staff at the Teddy Bear Preschool have following strict guidelines, in order to be among the top preschools in the nation.<\/p>\n
The goal was to earn an NAEYC accreditation.<\/p>\n
All that work paid off on Monday, when the staff walked through the doors and were greeted by a glittering banner that congratulated parents, staff and students for being ranked among the top 3 percent of preschools in the nation.<\/p>\n
The process was long and labor-intensive, and a set of 12, 5-inch-thick binders sit in the office of Teddy Bear Preschool director Valiena Rosenkrance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to find 500 pieces of evidence to support all the criteria,\u201d Rosenkrance said.<\/p>\n
In order to become accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, a school has to show that they met all the criteria and pass a site inspection and observations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like an audit,\u201d Rosenkrance said. \u201cWe had to prove everything from our high-level curriculum to the fact that our building was radon- and asbestos-free.\u201d<\/p>\n
The process was time-consuming, Rosenkrance said, but worth it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has brought us so close together as coworkers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The closest NAEYC accredited preschool is in Farming ton and another in Pagosa Springs.<\/p>\n
Rosenkrance said she learned of the honor after returning from a spring break vacation. She kept it secret until Monday morning, when staff and students returned from spring break. She decorated the front of the school to surprise them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could not do this without the community and staff. This took a group effort. You have to have great relationships to do this,\u201d Rosenkrance said.<\/p>\n
Dolores School District Superintendent Scott Cooper was pleased.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will only strengthen the foundation of our district,\u201d Cooper said.<\/p>\n
He said he was impressed with the sheer volume of work the staff had to do to make the school safe. Staff also had to attend a large amount of training.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very proud of the Teddy Bear Preschool. They\u2019ve worked so hard,\u201d Cooper said.<\/p>\n
To become accredited, the NAEYC looks at 10 standards: relationships, curriculum, teaching, assessment of child progress, health, teachers, families, community relationships, physical environment and leadership\/management.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Accreditation puts it in top 3 percent in U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":113393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6363],"tags":[188,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-113392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ds-news","tag-dolores-star","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113392"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=113392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}