The Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta's award-winning east Cobb preschool, The Sunshine School, will open its doors on Aug. 9 for the 2010-11 school year in a new location. The school has relocated to Temple Kol Emeth at 1415 Old Canton Road in Marietta.

"We're joining forces to provide the best preschool experience possible for all the children in the area," said director of the Sunshine School Raye Lynn Banks.

Bringing 60 years of experience and all their loving, highly trained and experienced teachers, the Sunshine School will continue to serve families of the east Cobb community. "This is a true win-win. Temple Kol Emeth is more of a central location for the east Cobb families, allowing us to serve more children from throughout the community," said Banks, who has been director since 1989.

"We welcome the partnership with TKE, an organization with a wonderful reputation. We are thrilled about the enhancements that have been made to the TKE preschool including: the painting of, as well as new technology in all of the classrooms," she added.

TKE President Dave Mayer said, "We are looking forward to the opportunity to work with the MJCCA and are greatly anticipating a long and meaningful relationship. It's a perfect fit with our preschool and facilities. The education of our children has always been fundamental to TKE's mission, and this relationship will benefit children throughout the community for years to come."

The Sunshine School will continue its tradition of providing a positive learning environment by building on their solid foundation. Accredited since 1992 by the National Association for Education of Young Children, the Sunshine School is one of only about 200 preschools in Georgia having achieved the prestigious NAEYC designation, according to Banks.

In addition to its expertise in early childhood learning, the school brings with it its nationally acclaimed, pluralistic, Jewish values curriculum, "An Ethical Start."

"Our children leave our program ready to succeed in any school environment," Banks said. "We're always on a journey. We're always looking to see what we can do better."

Among the program enhancements the Sunshine School will introduce in the fall is zoo phonics, a reading readiness program. They will continue using successful programs such as handwriting without tears and baby sign language. "We're taking what we do fabulously and enhancing it," she said.

"We're never content to say, 'that's it.' We're just always looking to improve on how we can give our families, our children more," the former kindergarten teacher said.

"We're excited to make it happen," Banks said.

For more information about The Sunshine School at TKE, contact Banks at (678) 812-3714 or RayeLynne.Banks@atlantajcc.org or visit www.atlantajcc.org.