We hope last month's poll brought a smile to your face! You may or may not be surprised to hear that nearly 40% of our respondents agreed that BIRDS would be the most annoying if animals could talk.

Another question to make you chuckle this month...

October is National Co-op Month, which for us presents an annual opportunity to raise awareness about the many ways in which our early childhood programs provide a trusted, proven way to do business and build resilient, inclusive communities. 

The Future is Cooperative, this year’s theme, should make you feel good! Perhaps you hadn’t given it much thought, but the fact is that your early childhood cooperative is helping to shape a more equitable, innovative, and sustainable world.

I’m sure that as you bring new families into your program each year, you meet a few who aren’t quite sure what a cooperative is or how it could work for them. You can confidently assure them that a co-op is always the right kind of preschool because the whole reason for a cooperative to exist is to satisfy the needs of its members. Co-ops with members who work together to create exactly what they need right in their own community has huge advantages over a large corporation or a school district making decisions that impact your life but over which you have little control. 

Throughout Co-op Month (and every month), let the world know you’re there, doing good work with and for your community!

The date has been set for PCPI's 2025 Annual Meeting! We'll be gathering in Vancouver, British Columbia, April 10-13, and we'd love to see you there. Please save the date and watch for more details coming soon!

Join PCPI sponsor Jennifer Watanabe, Certified Positive Discipline Parenting Educator and Parent Coach for an upcoming event! Jennifer is a Child Behavior Consultant & Parent Coach. She helps parents help their children. For 24 years she taught positive parenting classes for Bellevue College in Washington state. She’s taught hundreds of parents how to help their young children have better behavior. She offers private coaching & teaches Positive Discipline classes.

Upcoming Coaching Talks:

Temper Tantrums & Anger Mountain

Sunday, September 29

5 pm EST/2 pm PST

Becoming a Friend, Being a Friend

Monday, September 30

7 pm EST/4 pm PST or 10 pm EST/7 pm PST

Caring for YOU First

Tuesday, October 1

3 pm EST/12 pm PST or 10 pm EST/7 pm PST

Coaching talks are FREE!

"On May 18th, Valley Pre-School held a "Garden Party" thanks to the funding awarded from the Anne Eddowes Cooperative Spirit Grant. We were able to purchase three new raised garden beds and plant flowers, herbs, and vegetables! Families came together to get this project done, and it was a great example of what it means to be a cooperative school. We are all so excited to watch our garden grow and for the children to be able to tend to the garden and take pride in their work. We had about 30% of our families actually participate in the day, but several more families helped by planning ahead of time, dropping off extra gardening supplies, and by agreeing to help water the garden while school was out.

This month we're happy to introduce you to another of our host schools during PCPI's Annual Meeting this spring in Indianapolis, Indiana. Say hello to our friends at Geist Orchard Cooperative Preschool.

Navigating a Move

It’s a difficult and time-consuming task finding a new location for your co-op. Geist Orchard was lucky enough to have a home for many, many years, but nothing is forever, and in 2023 we needed to find a new location in just a few months' time. We would not have been successful without a hard-working team and a passionate community. Below are some thoughts that may help your school if you ever need to look for a new space.

Tips for searching and moving locations:

• Start a committee and hold regular meetings. Our committee consisted of Board members, teachers, and families. We tasked someone besides the president to help lead the committee to share the load: moving is not a one-person job. You will need a community effort to make the move successful.
• Figure out your search parameters. We set up a geographical zone of our searching area, reviewed our budget to come up with an appropriate rent amount, and looked at our wants and needs for the interior space, such as number of classrooms, and outside space.
• Create a spreadsheet of possible locations within the parameters. The locations we considered were churches without preschools, non-profits, and community buildings. Then we tasked each committee member with locations with whom they were responsible for communicating.
• Outreach. We created a location inquiry letter to send and take to the locations on our list. We pounded the pavement, dropped off flyers at the locations, made calls, and sent emails. We also reached out to our alumni and social media community for help. 
• Continue business as usual. We proceeded with tours for prospective families in our current space and focused on our philosophy, families, and teachers. We were transparent about our ongoing location search when meeting prospective families and held regular park meet-ups in the community to continue to build relationships with them.
• Tour possible locations. We kept our initial tours of locations to a select few board members and teachers. The teachers’ preferences and input were very important to our selection process since they would be spending the greatest amount of time in the space.  
• Find a good match. Be upfront about your needs, budget, and philosophies with your future landlord. It was important for us to find a location where all our members felt welcome and safe in our space. We crossed several locations off our list because our needs and wants did not mesh fully with those of the potential landlord. The goal is to find a space where you won’t have to move again in another year.
• Don’t forget your in-kind contributions. It was helpful for us to include all the non-monetary support that we offer to our location when it came to negotiations. We have regular indoor and outdoor clean-up days to help maintain the environment, and we also regularly spend our fundraising money on developing our outdoor space. We also included in our lease two workdays to help the building with projects like window washing, painting, and various other upkeep tasks of their choosing. Another idea would be for members to volunteer for festivals or events to support the location.  
• Foster a strong relationship. We had an amazing relationship with our previous location. They provided plenty of notice that their future plans for the space had changed, and they helped us with the physical move. Before you even consider moving, make sure to form a good relationship with your landlord, and foster open communication between the co-op and the landlord. Our current lease establishes that we are to meet every six months to discuss the relationship. That way, the co-op will have plenty of notice before having to make another move.

We were fortunate to have counsel and insight from the Indiana Council of Preschool Cooperatives and the Directors of another area school that had previously navigated a move, Edgewood Preschool Cooperative. Thank you for your support!

And thank YOU, Geist Orchard and Alison, for sharing your experience and insightful tips. We wish you a long and happy future in your new school home!