Church Relationship

WANS was founded in 1964 by members of the Winthrop United Methodist Church who felt led to provide this mission to the community. While church involvement in WANS activities has decreased over time, WANS and the church still have a close relationship. Members of the Winthrop United Methodist Church serve as liasons from the church to the school board. They report to the Church Council to keep parishioners up-to-date on nursery school affairs. The church provides their space without cost. In return, WANS makes a donation to the church of 5% of tuition income to help with utilities.

Originally the WANS director was responsible to the Education Commission. As time went on, it was one of the church representatives on the WANS who reported to that commission. We know from the records that in 1973 Priscilla Connor was still reporting to the Education Commission but are unclear when further changes were made, or just why.

As the Education Commission became less directly involved, the WANS Board evolved into a working committee, with governing and advisory responsibilities. It functions in the same capacity today.

At first the WANS committee was made up entirely of interested church people, because this was the group who had worked so hard to bring the whole idea of this mission to fruition. When Everett Wiswell was pastor, he was the acting chairman of Nursery School Board (the called committee). It was his suggestion to open up membership on the committee to persons in the community not connected to the Methodist Church – probably parents of enrolled children. Robin Estes was one of the first to join the committee in that category.

Over time, there has been less church involvement – not because of WANS desires, but because church people began to take WANS somewhat for granted. In a way, this was a compliment. It was functioning smoothly and well, no longer needing so much work or attention from the church. Also, people got involved and busy on building projects, more church women went to work full-time, etc.

For these reasons it became more and more difficult to find many church persons willing and able to make the commitment of time and energy demanded of WANS committee members. It was harder to find persons who had the time for even one more meeting!

Over the years we have had some wonderfully dedicated church representatives who have faithfully attended meetings and helped make decisions. But, the nitty-gritty work was most often left up to the board members who were parents – some from the church, others not.

The church representatives on the board are now called liaisons and report directly to the Administrative Board. The director is always willing to attend if her presence is desired.

For many years, now, there have been only 2 church members serving. The rest were parents, with the exception of the director. Mostly this has worked just fine, as these are the persons naturally most involved, and willing to spend the necessary time working to help their child’s school function smoothly to meet their children’s needs.

It is really quite important, as well as logical, that the majority of the board be the young parents themselves. Remember, one of the reasons the school was formed was to help parents, not just young children of the area.

There has never been the need for a policy limiting the number of years a board member could serve. In fact, some few stay on even after their children go into public school. Their continuity and experience have proved valuable. The present treasurer has served for three years.