75th anniversary

The El Cerrito Preschool Cooperative has been around since 1940. To commemorate that long history in our community, we are sharing a series of stories from people who experienced ECPC over the years. If you went to ECPC in years past, as a child or parent, please email your story to marketing(at)ecpckids.com for possible publication on this blog. Thanks!

Teacher Ann, former ECPC director

When did you work at ECPC? 1980-2012

Can you tell a bit about the history of ECPC and how it impacts the school?

It started in 1940 in a church basement during the war. It was mostly mothers.

Then they got the [current] site and built the building — the wing closest to the bay was the original building.

A few years later they built the rest of the building. They hired a director at some point in the ‘40s, who was there for many years.

Eventually, fathers were starting to be more involved in their families and in the school. Fathers started being on the board and participating.

One day, I saw a guy standing outside the fence looking at the building and he said, “I helped build that building.” Knowing those stories makes ECPC very rich.

I think it’s important to remember that history. There haven’t been that many directors [over the years]. [Teacher] Nga was one of my parents. [Teacher] Jenny also was a parent in my program. And [Teacher] Par came on with me.

Can you talk about ECPC’s philosophy as it’s developed over the years?

The philosophy has always kind of been the free play philosophy. As I was there, I grew stronger in that feeling and [educator and writer] Bev Bos had a lot to do with my thinking.

If you give kids the right opportunities and environment, they can think on their own and develop confidence. People throw around “free play” pretty loosely, I think, but … at ECPC, the area that was used the most was the self-help area. When I saw kids swarming around that and ignoring my water paints or whatever, I thought we were doing something right.

Kids need that free time – you can’t keep pushing them, that it’s time for this, it’s time for that. They get so much of that freedom. We changed snack [from a set time] so that it was all morning, and that felt really good when we did that.

I run into former ECPC parents whose kids are in their 30s now. And there are a lot of great stories about people continuing on with their kids on how to look at life. It’s fun to hear.

What do you think is special about ECPC?

The community and the connection with the parents and the kids and the staff is unique. There’s probably no other job like it, because you’re hired by the parents and then you turn around and direct them. That community working together for the best for the kids can be a wonderful experience for everybody involved.

When I was there, the school almost got closed. The city wanted to take the land away and they did their best to get rid of the school. The parents went all the way to Sacramento to fight that. Parents even said they would start living in the school so the city couldn’t take it. At that point the school was out of money and people were loaning money to the school. But they saved ECPC.

The El Cerrito Preschool Cooperative has been around since 1940. To commemorate that long history in our community, we are sharing a series of stories from people who experienced ECPC over the years. If you went to ECPC in years past, as a child or parent, please email your story to marketing(at)ecpckids.com for possible publication on this blog. Thanks!

Teacher Par, current ECPC AM teacher

When did you start at ECPC? 1985

What’s special about ECPC?

I have learned a lot from the co-op. I’ve learned to deal with the people. You have to accept people the way they are. You never know what happened at their house that day and maybe they don’t feel good – I learned to go and talk to them. It’s not easy to work with the co-op system. You can’t judge people.

In my culture, you had to learn all the formulas. Here, I noticed you can be free. I had to go to school with shiny shoes, clean clothes. Little by little, I noticed we can learn by being free. Learning is not only memorizing and memorizing is not learning. I can see the kids are learning, mixing water, mixing color…

I never learned to say no and stand up for myself. I’m still learning. I’m teaching my students to say no and go talk to the person, because I want them to learn that.

The kids don’t need to learn the ABCs, they’ll learn it when they’re ready. Learning to stand on their own feet and be able to raise their hands and ask the teacher, “I didn’t understand,” “I need this,” or “I don’t like it,” that’s important to learn.

How has ECPC changed since you began in 1985?

The yard wasn’t the same. There was no structure, but metal pipes connected with bungee cords, for climbing on. We could move them around; could make monkey bars.

The backyard was almost empty. Over the years, parents built the structures, play house, loft area. It’s a co-op, so a group does one thing, another group comes and doesn’t like it, changes it – so there are lots of changes.

The telephone booth in the backyard was my idea. One of the parents made it about 8 years ago. He had a plan to have a wire to connect it to the playhouse. But he left and the project stopped.

I’d like to have a gas station with a hose and a car wash next to it.

For the future, I would like to have a younger group in the backyard with two teachers, so parents wouldn’t have to go two different places. This is my wish.

The El Cerrito Preschool Cooperative has been around since 1940. To commemorate that long history in our community, we are sharing a series of stories from people who experienced ECPC over the years. If you went to ECPC in years past, as a child or parent, please email your story to marketing(at)ecpckids.com for possible publication on this blog. Thanks!

 

April Jorden, former ECPC student and parents, current owner/director of Richmond/El Cerrito afterschool program The Kids’ House

When were you at ECPC?

As a student, about 1968. I was probably 4, maybe 3 and 4.

I had a kind of graduation certificate from ECPC that I gave to [former director] Ann and she used it for a number of years. It was a picture of us kids in the room and those huge big wooden blocks were there. I played with those big wooden blocks that I think are still there.

[Note, per Teacher Ann: The original blocks were slowly replaced over the years as they fell apart, with blocks that are the same as the originals. The small wooden blocks have also been at the school through generations of children.]

As a parent, I was at ECPC starting in 1992. I was there with my first child and then again with my third. I was on the board.

That was a trip. I remember coming back and there was some problem that we had fixed when I was on the board there before and I came back six years later and it was coming up again. I was like, “Are you kidding me?” And Ann said, “This is a co-op, this is what it is.”

I met a dear friend at that time who is still my friend. Our children are still really good friends.

What is special about ECPC?

I liked the old-fashioned, play-based curriculum. I liked the fact that there were all these different centers, there was a center for every kid.

If you wanted to swing you could swing, if you wanted to dig you could dig, if you wanted to paint you could paint.

I liked the basic materials for kids just to do what they wanted to do.

And I liked the co-op feel and working with other parents — the feeling you’re part of a community.

I recommend the school all the time. It’s play-based, it’s very child-oriented. There’s something for everyone.

What has changed at ECPC and what’s still the same?

They used to hatch chickens in an incubator. That was the most amazing thing.

There didn’t used to be a lock on the gate and vines covering the fences. I don’t like that now, but I know everyone is worried about safety.

The kids used to trick or treat around the school to each door in the school at Halloween.

One thing that’s very cool that’s still there, is the Christmas tree forest. And the end of the year overnight campout – that was cool, they still do that.

Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty recalls happy memories of growing up in El Cerrito in his new autobiography, according to the Contra Costa Times — including of our own El Cerrito Preschool Cooperative.

“My mother, Lucile, was a teacher at a nursery school about half a mile from our home, down a dirt road,” Fogerty writes. “I remember walking there a few times when I was 4 or 5 years old. By myself. That’s how innocent our town — El Cerrito, California — was then.” (The nursery school is El Cerrito Preschool Cooperative.)

–“El Cerrito a source of fond memories, Fogerty writes in autobiography,” Contra Costa Times, 10/14/2015

See the full article.

ECPC has been operating as a parent cooperative in El Cerrito for 75 years.