School portraits / Preschool mornings on Pearl Street, one winter
At Brooklyn Friends, the Preschoolers Noticed Who Was Missing
Two sisters greet students at two Brooklyn Friends buildings a few blocks apart. When one was out for a week, the parents of the preschoolers all had the same report.
At Brooklyn Friends School, two sisters greet the students every morning, a few blocks apart. The school's magazine profiled them. Donna sits in the lobby of the Upper School building, saying good morning to every student and making sure everyone swipes an ID card. "They are probably sick of my 'good mornings,'" she joked.
Her sister Cheryl greets the preschoolers and their families outside on the sidewalk at Pearl Street, with a smile, a hug or a high five. Since the pandemic she has done it outdoors; before that she held court from a high desk above the Pearl Street lobby, which she remembers as Grand Central or Times Square.
Cheryl arrived in 1987, when she enrolled her daughter in the preschool, and has worked in the business office, the Lower School and the Upper School. Donna came in 2005 after 28 years at a bank. Their brother graduated from the school in 1977. "I love talking to the kids and to the parents," Cheryl said.
The sisters are glad to work a few blocks apart. As Donna put it, she likes her serenity, and her sister does not choose serenity.
Then the moment in the profile that stays with me. Cheryl was out for a week. When she came back, she said, every single parent came up to tell her that their children had asked where she was.
The children were keeping their own attendance, and the person they marked absent was not a teacher.
In the school's 2019 start-of-year checklist, she is also the person at the Pearl Street front desk to ask about student MetroCards. That is the job. The hug and the transit pass, from the same desk.
Our youngest's school has a crossing guard named on no website. She has stood on the same corner through all three of our children's elementary school years. Last winter she was out for two weeks. On the first morning, the youngest asked where she was. On the second, the middle one asked. On the third, I caught myself looking for her.
When she came back, the youngest gave her a drawing of her standing on the corner, holding up the stop sign, with a sun overhead. She has taped it inside her booth. I asked the youngest why she had drawn the sun. She said because that is what it is like when she is there.
Sources
The public records, school pages and published accounts this story draws on. Where the story imagines a scene or a line of dialogue, that is the column’s telling, not a quotation.
- 2019–2020 Start of School Checklist brooklynfriends.org
- Sisters, Colleagues, Friends: The Story of the Legendary Foote Sisters brooklynfriends.org
- Brooklyn Friends School public reviews niche.com