With a very difficult to obtain NAEYC accreditation, dedicated staff, and beautiful facilities, we appeal to parents looking for a school to prepare their little ones for the next steps in their education.
However, ask any parent or teacher involved with our preschool and you'll hear something like, "Our school is something special." Searching around the country won't pull up many learning centers for little ones like ours in the United States! We are extremely unique in that we support students of all emotional, physical and developmental abilities; all are integrated into the classroom while being supported by specialists for their particular needs.
One story about a beautiful connection between two people, one student and one former student, made our local Inspiring San Diego channel 7 news. It is the story of Ava Aria.
Ava is a 3 year old girl with Down syndrome currently enrolled in our school. Her mother, Jeanie, “It's amazing. Ava is happy every time I drop her off. When I pick her up, she doesn't want to leave.” While Ava loves being here, she has one special friend that became the nexus for her love of being in school.
Trevor Tibbs, 20, works part-time at the preschool as a teacher’s assistant. He too has Down Syndrome, and was with our preschool as a child. He’s since grown up and become part of a local high school learning program.
Our Preschool's Sharing Lives initiative, which includes integrating adults with special needs as teacher’s assistants, is what brought Trevor and Ava together. Their connection started when Tibbs spotted Ava on the playground. He saw her sitting alone and knew they were alike, so he introduced himself and told Ava that if she worked hard, she could grow up to achieve her dreams.
Trevor’s parents know how meaningful our preschool experience can be. They lived through the same uncertainty Aria found herself in before Ava started school, wondering how Trevor might fit in at a school with other children. Almost two decades before Aria enrolled her daughter on our campus, the Tibbs family made the same choice.
"And because Trevor was here as a kid, he still remembers it and to come back and give back, which is what he's doing, he knows that he looks forward to being with these kids and is almost an expert in his field,” Trevor’s faith Tedd says.
For Ava’s mother, our Preschool is more than a school where she drops her child off and then picks her up. It’s a second home. “I don't ever want to leave. I'm going to be sad when she does. But you know, hopefully, she'll be here again like Trevor is one day.”
We currently have a healthy attendance of about 240 preschoolers, and as always we have a group of wonderful students who are identified as having special needs.
Thank you for all who support the ministries of our church. Your generosity allows us to maintain facilities that allow great programs, like our preschool, to operate and bless families.