For many parents, choosing a preschool means choosing between philosophy and practicality.
A nurturing, child-led educational approach typically comes with a three-hour school day. Full-day care might provide the hours working families need, but not necessarily the educational experience they envisioned for their child.
“Parents want a rich pedagogy and thoughtful approach,” explains Doug Schachtel, Co-Owner of Tribeca Community School. “But they also need full-day care. Too often, they’re forced to choose.”
Tribeca Community School (TCS) is changing that. Opening September 8 at 66 Grove Street, the school brings its 20-year Manhattan legacy to Ridgefield, offering Ridgefield families the best of both worlds: a rich Reggio-inspired learning environment paired with flexible hours to suit every family’s needs.
For Doug, the expansion is also something of a homecoming. He spent the first decade of his childhood in Ridgefield, attending preschool here before his family moved to New Canaan.
“I have so many fond memories of a joyful childhood spent here,” he tells us. “Cooling off at the Boys & Girls Club, playing soccer at Veteran’s Park, eating fried chicken from Ancona’s Market!”
The philosophy of TCS is grounded in the belief that children are not empty vessels waiting to be filled with information. Rather, they arrive with ideas, theories, and an innate desire to understand the world around them. Teachers serve as observers and collaborators, carefully documenting children’s interests and designing experiences that build upon them.
“Our teachers see themselves as researchers,” Doug says. “They’re always observing what the children are doing, learning who the children are and seeing what inspires them. The learning experiences are then crafted around what is observed in the children.”
Doug and his business partner, Babur Habib, became co-owners of TCS in lower Manhattan just over a decade ago. The two had founded Portfolio School together—a project-based K-8 school in NYC. When TCS’s founder and educator, Ayala Marcktell, was planning to retire, she asked if they’d take on the preschool too.
“It aligned perfectly with our vision of education,” Doug tells us. “A Reggio-inspired preschool is like a cousin to project-based learning for older children. So we saw a natural connection to our work.”
It also helped that Babur’s daughter attended TCS and, as a parent, he saw what a rich experiential learning environment can do for a child’s learning and confidence.
TCS is inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. Developed by educator Loris Malaguzzi in post-World War II Italy, Reggio Emilia is grounded in the belief that children are naturally curious, capable learners whose interests and ideas help guide the educational process.
The curriculum is emergent—meaning topics of study grow naturally from children’s questions and discoveries. Rather than following a rigid lesson plan, teachers observe what sparks children’s curiosity and build short- and long-term investigations around those interests.
Doug shares a recent example from the Manhattan school: children in one classroom became fascinated with birds and decided they wanted to send the birds written messages. During the project, the children covered a tree in paper and decorated it with messages, while also crafting notes to dangle from its branches.
“They were practicing writing,” Doug says. “The children did not realize it was a literacy lesson because it was wrapped up in an idea they were genuinely excited about.”
As projects evolve, children are encouraged to work together, test ideas, ask questions, and learn from one another through what TCS calls Collaborative Problem Solving. Teachers document those moments through photographs, notes, and displays of children’s work, making learning visible and allowing students to revisit their thinking, reflect on their discoveries, and build upon them over time.
The philosophy also embraces what Reggio educators call The Hundred Languages: the idea that children express themselves in countless ways, from painting and sculpture to storytelling, music, movement, and dramatic play. At TCS, those forms of expression are nurtured throughout the school, but perhaps nowhere more visibly than in the atelier, a dedicated studio space designed to encourage exploration through a wide range of materials and media.
“It’s not like going to an arts classroom that’s separated from the rest of the school, where now we’re doing arts as a special,” Doug says. “It’s embedded in the culture and the everyday experience of the school as a whole. The atelier is the heart and the anchor point of that work.”
Guiding that work is an atelierista (or atelieristo), an artist/educator whose role centers on supporting creative exploration and helping weave art throughout the curriculum—not just within the walls of the atelier itself.
Completely renovated by the team at KG&D Architects, the Ridgefield location comprises 11,000 square feet, is flooded with natural light, and includes 11 classrooms in addition to movement rooms and shared community spaces.
For the playground, TCS partnered with Frederick Martin of Environment Design, a playground designer known for building with natural materials—the same designer behind the playground at New Canaan Country School, where one of TCS’s advisors heads the early learning program.
The outdoor space and movement rooms will also include Imagination Playground blocks, large blue building pieces designed by architect David Rockwell that let kids construct their own play environments—equipment Doug has a personal history with, having once worked for the company that makes them.
The Ridgefield campus is also expanding the school’s age range: while the Manhattan location starts at age two, TCS Ridgefield will welcome children from six weeks to six years old. Doug believes the power of the school’s philosophy begins at these earliest stages, long before children are old enough for traditional academics.
Kindergarten readiness is a central priority, guided naturally by the school’s engaging, exploratory approach to learning. The curriculum is benchmarked against Connecticut’s kindergarten-readiness guidelines, with literacy, math, and social-emotional skills woven into daily experiences rather than taught through worksheets or screens.
When Doug and Babur began exploring locations beyond New York City, they considered communities throughout Fairfield County and northern New Jersey. But they kept coming back to Ridgefield, helped along by the fact that Babur’s brother and sister-in-law already live in town.
“It’s not just finding a space,” Doug says. “It’s finding a community where this type of education resonates.”
Community, fittingly, has always been central to TCS. More than a descriptor in the school’s name, it serves as a guiding principle—one that shapes not only the classroom experience, but also the relationships between children, teachers, and families.
“Families play an important role in a child’s education,” Doug says. “There can’t be a complete separation between home and school for this to work as it should.”
That emphasis on connection may be arriving at just the right moment. In a town where conversations about childhood increasingly revolve around screen time, technology, and how to preserve opportunities for real-world play, TCS is offering something intentionally low-tech: classrooms without screens, curriculum driven by curiosity, and learning rooted in hands-on exploration.
Melissa Barissi, Program Director of TCS Ridgefield—whose own son, Cooper, will attend the school this year—believes that sense of intentionality is part of what has resonated with local families.
“This school is being built with enormous intention and care,” she says. “Every decision, from the materials in the classroom to the way we design our outdoor space, has been made with purpose.”
The response has been encouraging. Hundreds of families have already joined the school’s email list, and TCS plans to open 5 or 6 of its 11 classrooms this fall, ensuring a thoughtful start as they welcome their first group of children.
But for Melissa, success won’t ultimately be measured by enrollment numbers. It will be measured in smaller moments: a child who enters nervously in September and runs through the door by year’s end; a family who feels like they truly know their child’s teacher; a staff meeting where a teacher shares an observation about a child and it leads to a meaningful conversation about how to support that child’s growth.
“If we’ve built a place where children feel safe, families feel connected, and teachers feel supported and inspired by their work,” she says, “that is a successful first year.”
TCS Ridgefield is now enrolling. Visit tcsridgefield.com to learn more.