by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

June 25, 2009

Amy Fingeret, director of the Brody Early Childhood Center on the Aidekman campus in Whippany, has resigned, effective June 19. She has accepted a position as early childhood director at a synagogue in Bergen County, beginning July 16.

Jill Felton will oversee the summer camp at the Whippany location, and a replacement for Fingeret will be in place by the fall, according to Joe Sohinki, director of early childhood services at JCC MetroWest, which administers the center. Felton has been working at the center in an administrative capacity.

“We hope to hire someone as soon as we can,” said Sohinki. “Amy’s been wonderful. I’ve enjoyed working with her, but this is a real opportunity for her, and I’m happy for her in that sense.”

The Brody Center had more than 100 children when Fingeret arrived in August 2005, although enrollment has declined by half over the last several years. Forty children are enrolled for the 2009-10 year. The infant room, for babies from six weeks to 18 months of age, will be eliminated in the fall.

“We just don’t have any enrollment for that age group,” said Sohinki.

Fingeret said the declining enrollment is linked to the JCC’s decision in 2007 to pull out of its athletic facilities at the Jewish campus in Whippany, citing a budget deficit. The Aidekman Jewish Community Campus is home to the offices of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ, New Jersey Jewish News, The Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life, the Jewish Historical Society, the Waldor Memorial Library, Wilf Holocaust Memorial, and Lester Senior Housing. The gym and pool are now privately operated by Gold’s Gym.

The JCC ultimately decided to keep the Brody Center open, but Fingeret said the impact of the transfer of the gym and pool on the preschool was palpable.

“Perception is powerful,” she said. When the JCC pulled out of the facilities, she added, people thought the school also was no longer on the Whippany campus. The enrollment numbers “got lower,” she said, “because people did not know we’re still here or if we would be here.”

Fingeret said there have been “more positives than negatives” during her tenure.

She described the support she received from people in the building as “amazing.”

“I will miss coming in every day and not feeling like it’s work. In the preschool business, work is like being with family,” she said. “It’s been a wonderful experience for me; I’ve been able to be part of a wonderful community, with people who care about the education of their children and what happens to the JCC. And the teachers are amazing and dedicated, and it’s my hope that will continue.”

She said she is looking forward to having more time at home, as well as having more authority in her new position.

“Working at a temple nursery school, I’ll have more time to be with my family and my dogs,” she said. “And in my new position, I’ll have the autonomy to make the decisions for the school that I think are best.”

Jayne Chaplick of Morris Township, whose four-year-old son is enrolled at the Brody Center, said she wasn’t concerned by the personnel change.

“As far as watching over things over the summer, Jill is more than competent — as long as in the fall there will be another person” in place as director, she said.

Chaplick has an older child who completed the Brody Center program and a three-month-old infant at home.

“We’re disappointed, obviously, that Amy is leaving,” she said. “Part of the reason we came to the JCC is that we thought Amy was a really good leader. She took everyone’s personal situations and needs into consideration and addressed them.”

Chaplick said she likes the Brody Center’s “family-like” atmosphere and hopes the culture won’t change with a new director.

“I’d like to think the screening process will be done by the staff, and I hope some parents are involved. Who else knows the culture better than the people already there?”

She said she plans to reenroll her son for next year.

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