TOPSHAM

Tucked away on a large parcel of family land off Route 196, drivers may never know Pejepscot Day School was there.

But nestled between thick lines of trees in a ranch house the pre-school sits, as it has now for 25 years, impacting hundreds of children in the Mid-coast area.

Owners Stephanie and Rene Bernier never expected to keep the venture going so long, experiencing ups and downs along the way and want to mark the accomplishment of 25 years in business with a celebration at the school from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18. There will be family activities, hay rides, music and more at the school, located at 646 Lewiston Road in Topsham.

On average, Stephanie Bernier said the licensed preschool has 45 to 50 students a year and offers three different classes. The school offers creative schedules to meet the needs of families and teachers and two of her teachers have been at the school for 17 years.

“I think when it started, I thought of it as a preschool and teaching, and didn’t imagine how connected I would feel to the community and to the families that have been coming,” Bernier said.

The families who bring their children to the preschool connect with one another as well, Bernier said. “I think that’s one of our strongest points, is the families we have who are very committed,” not only to their children but to the school. Many stay connected through years, as she’ll hear from past students on Facebook asking if the school still has the tree in the classroom (it does).

“They’ve impacted my life too,” Bernier said, “and I guess as the years have gone by our focus has become very much based on the environment and taking care of the environment; and respect for the world around us. We try to make our themes have a lot to do with that.”

Bernier writes the curriculum and uses an eclectic approach, she said, trying to incorporate many philosophies she likes, making sure it is relevant to what is going on in the world around students. She focuses more on social awareness for example, and contribution to the community, helping the local hunger prevention program the past couple years .

“We try to make a difference in the community around us as well,” Bernier said. “We sponsor a family for the holidays and that’s something that the parents here organize and take part in, and that’s really neat.”

Bernier was teaching in a public school and had two children back in 1988 as her and husband Rene poured the foundation for the school building, and expecting their third child — born a month before the school opened in 1989. Her husband grew up in the house next door where they still live so the now 55- year-old could walk back and forth to school. Her husband, Rene, takes care of the grounds, does the books for the businesses and loves giving the children hay rides. During an open house earlier this month he pointed to the adjacent field where he hides pumpkins for the kids to find in the fall.

An educator with a background in special education, Bernier works with parents on individual or behavior issues and teaches in all three classes. She’s always welcomed kids into the program if it can serve their needs and “we’re always willing to work with families whose children have special needs… We’ve had all different types of kids here.”

“It’s not a huge profit-making business because you can’t charge enough and expect people to be able to come,” Bernier. Enrollment she’s found is cyclical, and this year there are around 10 fewer students than last year but in the past two years enrollment was really high. The school’s most difficult time was after the Brunswick Naval Air Station closed, followed by a recession. At one point the school canceled one class so she could work as a nanny afternoons.

This year, looking to its Sept. 8 opening date she felt calls were coming in later due to the economy, the effects of which she feels have trickled down to the middle class. People seem not to want to commit ahead of time and last year, more people needed assistance than at any time in the past. The more full enrollment is the more they can help people.

Parents and young children filled the front yard, kids crawling over the playground equipment during the open house Sept. 4. Jennifer Yezwinski said her daughter Ella is starting her third year at the school, and her son Brady went to the school three years too. She had a fellow mom who is a teacher, recommend the preschool. She found that “Miss Stephanie really had a way with boys… more of a finesse, more of an understanding of their learning style and need to move,” which was something she wanted for her son.

“It turned out that he had a lot of developmental difficulties that Stephanie was able to help us identify and help is fund resources for, which was immeasurably valuable to us,” Yezwinski said. “I think she’s just really an expert at what she does and constantly improving and constantly thinking about how to make the school better — and tailoring what she does here to the particular population of kids that she has at that moment, which is wonderful and not something that you find everywhere.”

Her son learned to try new things and believe he can do anything. Yezwinski and her husband opted to keep her daughter, who is on the young side, at the school a third year because they felt the social and emotional skills she is learning at the preschool “are going to set her up to be a much more confident kindergartner and student as she goes through her academic career.”