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Airport Frolic


Just under 30 children currently have the…

By Courtney Dentch

Among the many buildings that make up Kennedy Airport is a $3 million facility where the airport’s youngest visitors can frolic in a soundproof playground, draw a caterpillar or paint an Independence Day scene.

Just under 30 children currently have the run of JFKids Port, the airport’s day-care center. But Judy Walia, the educational director of the program who took over in April, is hoping to fill the classrooms to their capacity with 160 children come September, she said.

“We’re building our numbers,” Walia said. “When we started in April, there were 11 kids — now there are 27. In just a few months we’ve really grown.”

JFKids Port has been offering child-care services at the airport since 1995, she said. Walia, a partner at Marcktell Management, took over the day-care center in April when Bright Horizon, the previous operator, ended its contract with the Port Authority, she said.

The center is open to parents who work on the airport as well as families in the community, Walia said. The program is geared toward children from ages 6 weeks to 6 years old, but Walia and her partner, Ayala Marcktell, hope to extend the age to 13, Walia said.

“We want to provide enriched programming and a variety of programming for school-aged kids,” she said.

The children are led by a staff of eight certified teachers who guide them through the typical day-care activities, including painting, music, play time and recess, Walia said. But the children also get a foundation in science and reading to help them as they prepare for school, she said.

“We do not entertain the children, we provide an enriched environment for them,” she said. “It’s not an academic program with homework, but we learn every single minute of the day. We learn through play.”

For instance, the children get a lesson in the life cycle of a butterfly as they create caterpillars using arts and crafts and sing songs about the insects, Walia said. They also learn to recognize letters and words from the labels that adorn every item in the room, from the sink to the light switch to the phone.

“Print is important to us,” Walia said. “The kids might not be able to read their names yet, but they know what letter it starts with.”

The facility that houses JFKids Port was build in 1995 when it first opened at a cost of about $3 million, Walia said. The building, nestled in a corner of the airport, features classrooms, a glass-enclosed nursery for the infants and three playgrounds for the different age levels, one of which includes a sound-proof overhang to shield the children from the noise of the planes flying overhead.

“Some of them have been here so long, they don’t even notice it anymore,” Walia said of her students. “They’re used to it.”

The building is also equipped with a security system that requires parents to enter a code on a keypad to open the doors, and a computer log-in system that tracks when the children are dropped off and picked up, she said. The facility is open seven days a week from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Walia was running another of the company’s facilities — the Briarwood Early Child Center — when Marcktell Management signed the contract with the Port Authority. Marcktell also manages a facility in Forest Hills, Walia said.

Walia decided to take over the airport center because her son had gone to the center in 1996 under the original managers, she said.

“I said, ‘There’s no way this place can close down,’” she said. “It’s very special to me because my baby went here.”

Aside from expanding the age level, Walia’s plans for JFKids Port include installing Internet cameras so parents can check on their children while at work, she said.

But Walia’s first priority is to boost the center’s enrollment, along with the help of some dedicated parents, she said.

“Our parents are great,” Walia said. “They take fliers and put them on the bulletin board at work. When the desire is there and the support is there, we’ll do well.”

Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at [email protected], or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.