Spotlight: Kids Connection’s 30th Anniversary
In September 1988, Kids Connection opened in the big two story stone building that is now home to our preschool. The name Kids Connection was used for the preschool because our school is about connections – connection between the students and teachers, between the faculty and the families, and the connection between our school and the community at large.
In September 1989, we opened our kindergarten with a huge waiting list. Our preschool parents had been asking to add the kindergarten, because they responded very well to our mission statement of taking the best parts of many educational philosophies and blending them together, from which developed our 4 pillars:
- the safe, secure, loving environment provided by our school
- the strong academic program that encourages lifelong learning
- the emphasis on character development that helps children learn to be quality individuals and ethical leaders
- the importance of the partnership between parents and teachers in these endeavors
Each year, when our students graduated from kindergarten, the parents would ask us to expand to a full elementary school grades kindergarten to fifth. However, we had no space.
Eventually, the Winery Restaurant located next to the preschool came up for sale. In 1995, we moved into the restaurant that had been converted to a school. We grew very quickly adding one grade at a time.
It was now necessary to add a new addition to the building. The new addition housed three new classrooms upstairs, three new classrooms downstairs, and our lobbies and offices. The ribbon cutting ceremony was in 1998. Now our elementary school was complete.
Over the last three decades we have graduated students who are exceptionally well prepared academically, but also those who are also engaging and caring individuals with a quest for learning and with a desire to contribute to our world. This is a priceless gift that we give to our students. Our graduates have gone on to graduate from the finest universities in the country. They return for our reunions to recount their successes, and we are very proud of all of them.
At Kids Connection, we believe that the purpose of education is not just to teach, but to inspire – to not just instruct our students about what is already known, but to inspire them to discover what is not yet known. This has been our creative inspiration for the last thirty years, and this is the inspiration that will fuel the very future of our society. As we reflect back on an exceptional 30 years, we are so proud of what we, and most importantly our students, have accomplished. We are filled with hope and excitement as we look into the future about how our vision will continue to grow for the next 30!
