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Cobble Hill Pre-K Finds New Brooklyn Heights Home After Lightning Strike

By Nikhita Venugopal | September 12, 2013 9:17am
 Building Bridges preschool will host 100 children in Brooklyn Heights with annual tuition rates ranging from $6,659 to $13,698 dollars.
Building Bridges
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COBBLE HILL — A former Cobble Hill preschool has a new Brooklyn Heights location after a tumultuous year that included a lightning strike to their building — and they’re still accepting applications.

Building Bridges, which opens Sept. 18, was formed by the team from Linden Tree Preschool, a Cobble Hill school that had been working out of Christ Church for nine years when lightning struck the church’s steeple, damaging the building and killing a 61-year-old state prosecutor in July 2012.

Earlier this year, after Linden Tree had spent months without a permanent home, Christ Church, which helped start the school in 2004, officially informed parents and employees that the school would be closing in June, said Susan Kuhlmann, the school’s former principal and co-founder of Building Bridges. 

After five months of searching for a new home, Kuhlmann and her business partner Jennifer DeLuna will continue Linden Tree’s mission, classes and curriculum at Building Bridges, a non-denominational preschool located in Congregation of Mount Sinai on Cadman Plaza West.

“It took a whole summer, but we finally got there,” said Kuhlmann.

Christ Church, located at 326 Clinton St., was not available to comment.

Kuhlmann said she was glad to finally settle in Brooklyn Heights, although she hopes to return to Cobble Hill or Carroll Gardens with another location.

The school has four former Linden Tree teachers who will teach two classes at the school, which currently has 13 students.

Kulhmann hopes to add a third classroom next year with one room for 2-year olds, one for 3-year olds and a pre-K for 4- and 5-year olds.

Building Bridges, which can hold more than 30 kids, is still accepting applications for a Sept. 18 start date.

"We have blended the best parts of the best curriculums to come up with what we will teach," co-founder Susan Kuhlmann told DNAinfo New York last month. "That, plus very small class sizes, make our programs intimate and enriching."

For more information on applications, visit this website.