Weekday school to mark 55th birthday


By Rachel L. Toalson
Staff Writer
It began at Laurel Heights UMC, San Antonio, 55 years ago with 48 pupils and four teachers.
Today Laurel Heights Weekday School boasts about 150 students and enough teachers to maintain small teacher-student ratios.
Beginning at 9:30 a.m. May 19, present administrators, teachers, parents and students—along with former administrators, teachers, parents and students—are to celebrate the school’s 55th anniversary.
Anne Weir, director of the weekday school since 1985, plans to have the hallways decorated with old artwork, school tote-bags and T-shirts, and old snapshots and class pictures so visitors can walk down memory lane.
Ann Redmond Beuhler, who attended the school in the late 1970s, said she might bring some molded handprints that she and her husband—also a former student—made. Her daughter, 4-year-old Laura, has the molded handprints, too, since she attends the school part time.
“This is special,” Beuhler said. “I’m excited for them to have a legacy of 55 years.”
Begun in 1952 as an outreach program to serve the needs of the San Antonio community , the weekday school originally served ages 3, 4, 5 and 6—or until students entered the first grade. Mary McDavid was the school’s first volunteer director.
She served until 1959.
At that time, Weir said, the school was called the Weekday Kindergarten or School in Christian Living and operated Monday through Friday.
In September 1970, a Mother’s day out program was begun. Children younger than 3 were added, Weir said.
The first full-time director was Betty Thomas, hired in 1975. By that time, attendance had hit more than 100 students.
Around that time the name of the school changed to Laurel Heights United Methodist Weekday School, though no one is certain of when the change happened, Weir said.
The school was accredited in 1989 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and
remains accredited today.
“Accreditation assures that we maintain our quality in all different areas,” Weir said, “including our curriculum and teacher-child relationships and parent-teacher relationships, in our administrative duties and our health and safety.
“It forces us to take a good look at ourselves every three to five years and get input from parents and staff and administration so we can put together a plan for improvement. We’re constantly working on improvement.”
Ann Rangel, assistant school administrator, said accreditation signifies a special mark of quality.
“It’s something we work really hard to maintain,” Rangel said.
Both Weir and Rangel said they have seen many things change over the 24 years they’ve been involved with the weekday school.
Rangel said the program began as a part-time operation, and many people had their children enrolled only until 1 p.m. Now the school operates from 7:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.
Children hail from around the San Antonio area, she added. Some come from Castroville, Boerne and Floresville. But most are Alamo Heights and Olmos Park residents.
Weir said she has seen more of her staff become formally educated in early childhood education as opposed to people beginning their careers in public school and then coming to teach preschool.
“More of them have set out to become preschool teachers,” she said.
The school has always had its nine classrooms, Weir said, but she has seen their use grow.
“We’re just mainly full, whereas it used to be we’d have a couple of classrooms that would have three or so openings,” she said.
She said she believes commitment to excellent Christian education makes the school successful.
“We’re providing a developmentally appropriate environment, a nurturing environment,” Weir said. “I think the parents and children who come in here feel a part of the big family. They always tell us when they walk through the door, it just feels right.”
Beuhler said she and her husband are members of Laurel Heights. When they needed daycare, they thought of their own church—and remembered that their own parents had used the school.
“It just has a nice feel where kids can be kids,” Beuhler said. “It’s a nice, comforting, nurturing place, where kids are happy and supported and loved.”
Weir said administrators decided to have a 55th anniversary celebration because the church was being renovated when the 50th year rolled around.
The Saturday celebration is to begin with a breakfast and feature a barbecue lunch. Activities for the children are to include a craft table, a Jolly Trolley, a moon bounce, memory book making, face painting and more.
Students are to be recognized by decades of attendance, beginning with the 1950s, Weir said.
Rangel said she has run into former students at Alamo Heights sports games and at other schools. All have said they will be attending the celebration.
“They are so excited,” she said. “They’re happy to know that we’re marking this event with something special.”
The school is at 234 W. Mistletoe. Former students or parents who have something to display at the celebration can contact Weir at (210) 732-6979 or lhwsdir@yahoo.com.