How The Growing Place Came To Be
1984 and prior:
Childcare programs for working families that operate all day year round are almost non-existent in the community. Ellen Khokha envisions a preschool that will support excellence in education for young children in a full time program. Five working mothers whose employers will not support on site childcare agree to become the founding Board of a non-profit center. They name their school The Growing Place.
1984
Ellen proceeds to write grants, solicit employers, find a licensable site, and recruit a teacher. Three local businesses donate a total of twenty-five thousand in start-up funds. Ten thousand dollars of that grant was immediately shared with an existing program serving infants that was about to go under. The remaining amount proves to be inadequate to open a school.
Ellen seeks a loan and proceeds to organize a program and secure a license and permits.
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1985
The Growing Place leases an abandoned elementary school full of old pianos and shop equipment from the Santa Monica Malibu School District. Ellen hires one teacher enrolls the first child. Room Flags, good-bye windows, and talking chairs become symbols. A Grandmother donates the first yard equipment, two trikes still in use today.
1986 By March there are 32 children and three staff. The playground is sparse with a handball court and one rusty metal climbing structure. Despite a lack of funds, a scholarship fund is established to assist families in need. There are no staff benefits. We do have blocks!
1987 Growing Place struggles with the lease, first attempts at fundraising, and sharing a site. We begin a relationship with Santa Monica College to be a model for training student teachers. The first staff retreat is organized initiating an annual tradition of support for continuing education of teachers.
1989 The first Dino Fair, organized by parents and held on April 28th. raises $5,700 funds for scholarships for low income families. Teachers are offered health care benefits. Parents join the board. The Growing Place becomes accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
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1991 Teachers begin to use computers to document children’s work thanks to one parent who launches us into the digital age from parts he put together. Parents support the learning community by designing a new playground. Plans are put on hold by the board until a long-term lease can be guaranteed.
1994 A five-year lease is finally established. The trailer offices are added freeing up a lunch and work space for teachers. Enrollment for The Growing Place has 78 children, 15 staff members. Serious renovations of the playground begin with parent help.
1995
Growing Place begins to study the values and approach from the schools of Reggio Emilia, Italy.The first change we make is to “loop” enabling teachers to stay with children and families for three years.
In response to parents, our first trees and awnings are installed for much needed shade. Teachers are offered a very modest retirement plan as a 10th year birthday present.
1996 Anita de la Puente joins the Growing Place. As always the program accepts children with special challenges although many are not receiving services. Teachers are invited to leadership roles as team coordinators and mentors. Teachers receive paid time for reflection and documentation.
1998
After teachers reorganize the classrooms to make spaces for small group work, discussions begin with parent architects about creating a dedicated studio on the Ocean Park Site. Children and teachers participate in the design process. The board dips into savings to make upgrades to the classrooms. Teachers form a Reggio book club.
2000
Ground is broken for the project studio that is completed the following year. The Growing Place receives a grant from the City of Santa Monica to operate the Marine Park Site for infant, toddlers and preschoolers. Paula Lowe moves to the Marine Park Site as director.
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2002
Our first delegation of teachers, parents and administration travel to Reggio Emilia, Italy to attend professional sessions and tour Reggio schools. Teachers collaborate across sites. Growing Place provides leadership for a local Reggio Roundtable. Parents create Re-Discover as a community recycling/educational resource for all teachers. Anita DelaPuente becomes site director at Ocean Park.
2003
Marine Park upgrades all interiors and designs and installs three new beautiful playgrounds as part of the city grant. Ocean Park upgrades the playgrounds to meet the new safety standards. Teachers travel to other cities and to Italy to study innovative education. Parents from both sites on the board create a long-range plan.
2004
The Growing Place writes a grant to support an early learning collaborative for teachers from six local early education schools to further implement the Reggio ideas in their programs. Ocean Park elects to be one of three schools hosting visitors from all over the world who are attending the National Association for the Education of Young Children conference. Classroom environments are carefully upgraded through a collaboration of parents, board, and teachers.
2005 Our 20th Birthday! The Growing Place employs 40 staff members, serves 130 children and their families annually at two sites. Several hundred Early Education teachers have been mentored. Since our founding we have provided over 68,000 hours of Early Childhood Education to our community!! Low income families including children of the teachers are served at both sites. Maria Laskowski becomes our pedigogista.
2006 Pauline McPeake assumes leadership of the Marine Park campus and in collaboration with her teachers our infant program becomes a school to study exemplary care and development for very young babies. Work begins on designing a studio spaces and a community courtyard for this site. The Growing Place engages a mental health consultant to support our work with children who have special needs.
2007 Marine Park site applies for the third grant to offer infant and toddler care. The board continues to engage parents and community members and approves an innovative shed to serve as a studio for Marine Park. The Growing Place Annual giving campaign, DinoFair and Teacher Appreciation Events are well organized, support community building and provide income so the program can offer both movement and music at no additional cost to parents. The Growing Place sets the goal of enabling any teacher who agrees to extra study and to bring back ideas, to attend the week long intensive study session in Reggio Emilia Italy. Intensive preparation begins including reading the Hundred Languages of Children, fundraising, and enlisting parent support to close for a week in Spring the following year. The Growing Place provides the leadership to organize the study tour for California along with four other states.
2008 Both Marine Park and Ocean Park pass the strenuous new NAEYC
2009 Intentions across sites for this year include engaging children in nature, sustainability as a school and support for healthy life styles among teachers and families. Teachers from both schools learn together and meet several times weekly to study and create documentation. Under new stringent standards both sites achieve accreditation from NAEYC. Dino-Carnival has been held continuously for twenty years at Ocean Park the proceeds of which support tuition for lower income families.
2010 The Growing Place collaborates closely with four other innovative programs to support the Wonder of Learning Exhibit and continues to organize tours for visiting educators, mentor student teachers and offer workshops to inspire other programs. Planning begins to renovate the Ocean Park Site including creation of a master plan for outdoor learning spaces. We celebrate our twentieth-fifth birthday of continuous excellence in Early Education for children of working families!
