By PAUL H. JOHNSON
STAFF WRITER
NEW MILFORD — The Hovnanian School got its start 30 years ago in the basement of St. Vartanantz Church in Ridgefield by Armenian parents looking for a way to teach their children about their home country’s culture, language and history.
Today, the school’s lush River Road campus offers instruction in English, Armenian and French to more than 200 students from New Jersey and New York attending preschool to eighth-grade.
“The founders certainly wanted to give students an opportunity to learn the culture and language of Armenia as well as give them the opportunity to be good American citizens,” said Anahid Garmiryan, principal since 2000.
The school is named after New Jersey real estate developer Vahak Hovnanian, who was the principal donor.
At the school, children take classes in English and Armenian and learn traditional Easter songs and dances.
“Language is a really big deal,” Garmiryan said. Armenian is taught as early as preschool, alongside lessons in French and English.
“They learn it much more naturally and easily,” she said. “By the time they are older, they are often fluent in all three languages.”
French teacher Angelique Chartrain, whose 3-year-old son, Helios, attends the preschool, said the children enjoy it. “They come up to me and say bon jour and comment ca va.” Chartrain teaches the students French every day in 15-minute intervals, while entire classes are taught in English and other lessons completely in Armenian.
Chartrain, who is not Armenian, said she is glad her son is attending the school.
“Now he knows three languages,” she said. “It’s great for him.”
Garmiryan said the school was founded because many Armenians were worried that they wouldn’t be able to teach their children about the culture of Armenia, a country of nearly 3 million in the Caucasus, bordered by Turkey, Georgia and Iran. About 50,000 people of Armenian descent live in Bergen and Passaic counties, Garmiryan said.
The school works to impart a sense of Armenian culture and history to its students. The country dates its history to prehistoric times and Armenia has its own distinct language and alphabet. During World War I, genocide killed about 1 million Armenians. Those deaths are commemorated every April 25.
The Hovnanian School will host a 30th anniversary gala in the fall. In November, it installed a replica of the Armenian alphabet on the building facade written on obsidian stone. Miriam Miller Kaprieliam, a parent, is helping to raise funds to install a garden learning center on the grounds.
When the school was founded 30 years ago, most of the parents were new immigrants or the children of recent immigrants, Garmiryan said.
“Now it’s more third- or fourth-generation parents,” she said.
Kaprieliam, of Haworth, said her daughter, eighth-grader Alexandra, attends the school to better relate to her father and Armenian grandparents.
“I wanted her to have a way to communicate with them,” said Kaprieliam, who is not Armenian. “It’s an excellent education. It’s like a big family.”
Students say they have a fierce attachment to the school and its unique mission.
“The Armenian community is very close,” said eighth-grader Emmadora Boutcher of Teaneck. She said she’s not Armenian, but her family sent her to the school to learn different languages.
“My grandmother found this school,” she said. “She really liked how you could learn two languages.”
“Everybody in this school knows each other,” said Varak Baronian of New Milford, an eighth-grader. “It’s like a second home.”
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