The Pandarama Pre-School, which was located at 7th and Nebraska for years, has been honored with an intersection named after it.
The honorary street sign now says, “Pandarama Lane,” according to Tiffany Harper, daughter of the original owners, Morris and Carolyn Sipple.
The honors were complete with a ceremony last Saturday, attended by Harper, her family, Mayor Tyrone Garner, public works employees and community members. The honorary street name was approved at the Sept. 9 Unified Government Commission meeting.
Now completely closed and retired, the Pandarama Pre-School building itself has just been purchased by a new preschool owner, Demetria Spencer, who has managed preschools previously. Plans are for the new owners to open a new preschool there in mid-2022, Harper said.
Harper grew up with the Pandarama Pre-School, and in fact, finding good preschool care for her was one of the reasons her parents started the preschool.
The Pandarama Pre-School name was used at three different locations in the Kansas City area throughout its 46 years, with about 23 years at the 7th and Nebraska location, she said.
Its first location was at 24th and Garfield in Kansas City, Kansas, in a converted home that her parents and uncle opened as a preschool, Harper said.
“I personally was one of their first students,” Harper recalled. She was at a different preschool when her parents were trying to find better quality care.
Harper went on in life to follow in the footsteps of her parents. She started working during the summers as a teacher’s support and aide at day care. Her first degree was from Kansas City Kansas Community College in early childhood education. That was followed by a bachelor’s degree in communications and theater from Rockhurst College.
Harper then served as executive director of the Pandarama Pre-School for 18 years. Currently Harper is owner and director of the Learning Curve Center at 75th and Nieman in Johnson County.
The COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic had an effect on the Pandarama Pre-School, as it did on many small businesses throughout the nation.
Harper said it was challenging economically to be able to afford to stay open with less business and less foot traffic. Businesses are having to change the model of how they operate to accommodate people, she said.
They also have to try to accommodate children whose parents can’t afford their services post-COVID because they are not getting the same funding, she added.
Small businesses including preschools also are indirectly challenged socially and emotionally, Harper said. The pandemic affected everyone’s life, and preschools are often left to their own devices to figure out how to address a lot of indirect pandemic trauma, not only to children but also to their parents, she said.
“We’ve found community partners who have supported us during the process,” she said. However, at this time Harper and her husband found that it was best to sell the building to someone else who could provide a preschool there.
Another past challenge was unique, faced by Pandarama Pre-School in 2014 when the state of Kansas tried to open a parole office in a vacant building next door to the preschool. State legislators from Wyandotte County worked together with the preschool and community to block that idea. Currently, the formerly vacant building next to the preschool is occupied by a business which is a good neighbor, Harper said.
Through the years, Pandarama Pre-School meant a lot to everyone, and it has decades of legacies left in education and early learning, Harper said. It meant jobs for the owners and employees.
“It meant hope for young black children who could see young black business owners succeeding,” Harper said. “It meant a legacy for our family, for myself and my brothers, who were able to see our parents as successful.
“To the community, it provided support for their children, to keep them active in the summer,” Harper said.
It kept the children involved through the school year and gave them the support that they otherwise might not have had if they were at home alone.
“It also provided jobs for hundreds of people over the last several decades,” Harper said.
