President Fry Helps Celebrate New On-Campus Preschool at Ribbon-Cutting

In a second-floor room filled with excited young children, parents and teachers, Drexel University President John Fry joined community leaders and educators Monday in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Chesterbrook Academy preschool at 3201 Race St.

“This is Welcome Week at the University, and we’re seeing many new faces around campus, including over 5,000 undergraduate, graduate and transfer students,” said Fry. “Here today we’re also noting the start of an academic year for a group of new arrivals. They may be smaller in stature but they are just as important to our University as all of our other students.”

For years, Fry said, Drexel employees have indicated that the primary quality-of-life issue at the University was the need for a high-quality preschool where staff and faculty could send their students, and the new academy accomplishes that goal. At full capacity, it will be home to 180 children from six weeks old to kindergarten, in a location convenient for families who live and work at or near Drexel. It will also offer summer camps for school-age children, keeping pace with the University’s year-round class schedule.

“From an academic and a learning perspective, Chesterbrook Academy is the best possible fit with Drexel,” said Fry, who was accompanied at the event by Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell and George Bernstein, the CEO of Nobel Learning Communities Inc., an organization that operates more than 200 schools nationally, including Chesterbrook.

Bernstein called the school “a much-needed amenity for the working families of this community.”

Chesterbrook Principal Chloe Glenn joined Fry, Blackwell and Bernstein — and some of the school’s energetic new students — in cutting the ceremonial ribbon to celebrate the new location and the opportunities it will open for children and their families.

Drexel faculty, staff and graduate students can use a 5 percent tuition discount at all Chesterbrook Academy locations throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey.