Guest Opinion: A preschool makes sense for Town Center Guest Opinion: A preschool makes sense for Town Center (September 08, 2004)

By Carolyn Carhart-Quezada and Meredith McClintock

The Portola Valley Town Council will soon decide whether to provide space for a preschool in the new Town Center. As board representatives of the Windmill School, we strongly believe that including a preschool is the right thing to do, for many reasons.

Numerous well-documented studies have demonstrated that a quality preschool education confers long-lasting, positive benefits, academic and otherwise, to its students and their communities long after the preschool years. Unfortunately, right now over half of our prospective kindergartners must travel outside of town for preschool. The two preschools in town are at maximum capacity and have long waiting lists. The Windmill School turns away at least half of its applicants each year, while the number of preschooler families in Portola Valley is growing.

If Windmill were to move to Town Center, it could actually double its enrollment, lower its tuition rates and expand its financial aid program. It could serve many more residents, building relationships among preschool families that would carry forward into the Portola Valley School District.

All of our neighboring communities, including Woodside, Atherton, Menlo Park, and Palo Alto, provide municipal space to at least one preschool. (All other mid-Peninsula preschools are housed on church properties or in private homes). Doing the same would bring us into line with our fellow municipalities.

A preschool does not have to impose a financial burden on the town. The preschool community is committed to raising donations toward the cost of any facility. In addition, the preschool can bear the expense of leasehold improvements and pay appropriate rent to the town.

Today art, science, martial arts teachers and others are private contractors who lease space from the town to provide children's classes. We do not perceive that the town "subsidizes" these providers; rather, we value the educational opportunities they offer the town's youth.

In keeping with this tradition, a preschool would not be subsidized, either; it would be just another private contractor leasing classrooms. Since six of the seven citizen designs created in the town center charrette included a preschool, this seems a reasonable and inclusive approach.

Most importantly, a preschool at Town Center will benefit our community as a whole. Many volunteers working on the Town Center project have expressed the desire for it to be a community gathering place as well as a seat of government. Parents of young children, often newcomers, will be introduced to the civic life of our town.

Parents with older and younger children can have a central place to bring their children for enrichment: preschool, after-school classes, library, playing fields. Different age groups can mingle and learn about ways to get involved in the town. The greater the number and variety of users at Town Center, the more the goal of having a true community center becomes a reality.

Carolyn Carhart-Quezada is president of the Windmill board of directors; Meredith McClintock is a retired board member.

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