By Lee Durocher

The Agassiz Preschool after spending 39 years in Cambridge will celebrate the completion of their new location Oct. 30 at Arts at the Armory

Preschool-A-Palooza is coming to Somerville.

The Agassiz Preschool after spending 39 years in Cambridge will celebrate the completion of their new location Oct. 30 at Arts at the Armory from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

There will be a number of activities including live musical performances, face-painting and other circus-style fun. The event is aptly titled Preschool-A-Palooza. There will also be a CD on sale featuring local musicians, the proceeds of which will go to the Agassiz School’s scholarship fund.

“We started doing benefit concerts to supplement our scholarship fund,” said Tracey Kaplan, Director of the Agassiz Preschool. Kaplan also sees the concerts as a community building endeavor as well.

“The concerts are great community building events,” Kaplan said.

Local musician Andrew Mazzone will be running the event. In addition to being a musician, he is the parent of a student at the Agassiz School. Mazzone also produced the CD “Working On A Building – Music From the Agassiz Preschool Community” which will be on sale during the event. All the musicians had some direct connections to the Agassiz School according to Kaplan.

Kaplan explained that Mazzone wanted to create something long lasting, so he decided to make a CD and ended up with enough material for two CDs.

“It’s a testament to the community,” Kaplan said.

In addition to a number of local musicians being on the CD, it also features the students of the Agassiz Preschool.

“The kids do sing on a couple of songs and will probably be performing informally,” Kaplan said.

The school was originally located in Cambridge on Massachusetts Avenue. The school’s move was prompted by encroaching development. According to Kaplan, Lesley University bought the building in which the school was located four years ago and will be converting it into the Art Institute of Boston.

Currently, there are 40 students enrolled in the Agassiz Preschool. The new facility will be located at 184 Summer St. on top of Spring Hill. There were a few reasons why Somerville was chosen as the new location for the school.

“We wanted to be near by and many of our families are from Somerville. There has always been [an] integration between the Cambridge and Somerville communities. [So] it made sense to move to an area where there is a shortage of preschools and a need for more care. Our research showed that there were many families in the surrounding neighborhood that could be part of a co-op preschool,” Kaplan said.

The new school location on Summer Street is a three-story wooden house. The classrooms will be on the first two floors with the third being used for office space. Kaplan said that the yard is perfect sized and the new location is about the same size as its predecessor in Cambridge. Parents played a large roll in the new school as well.

“The parents are very involved in every aspect of the school. In fact they have physically helped build the new school,” Kaplan said.

Putting the event together was not too difficult. Mazzone is well connected to the local music scene so finding musicians to participate was easy.

“A lot of work but with a huge amount of help. We’re incredibly lucky to have so many resources at our finger tips and such a hard-working group of families,” Kaplan said.

The Agassiz School also has a few other fundraising events throughout the year. In addition to the annual concert there is a big Christmas tree sale (Dec. 3 – 22).

The fundraiser on Oct. 30 though will be the first for the new location.

Tickets for the event are $5 for kids, $10 for adults and $25 for a family. CDs can be purchased for $10 with advance tickets and $12 at the event. To purchase advance tickets or to learn more about the Agassiz Preschool visit their website at www.agassizpreschool.org.