Martinez Early Childhood Center, Inc.
eConnections will be recognizing excellence in Early Care and Education by focusing our spotlight on a different NAEYC accredited school each edition.
The spotlight this edition showcases the Martinez Early Childhood Center, Inc. written by Cassandra Campbell.
Nestled between the Alhambra Creek and the Bucolic Hills of Martinez, California are the two and one-half acres known as the Martinez Early Childhood Center, Inc.
The Martinez Early Childhood Center (MECC) is a private, non-profit program dedicated to offering high-quality infant/toddler and preschool education and full-time care for children zero to five years old since 1974.
The majority of operating funds are provided through a contract with the California Department of Education to provide care and education to children from low-income families, so that parents can work, look for work, or receive education and training that will lead to employment. We also receive funds through our partnership with the Federal Head Start Program and the Federal Child Care Food Program. Finally, a small portion of our funds are provided by families who pay full tuition.
Through the years we continue to change and grow in response to the needs of the community. One thing that has not changed is the support we receive from the families and the community at large. It is a common practice for local artists, gardeners, science enthusiasts and librarians to donate their time and share their expertise with the more than 85 children we serve each day.
MECC has enjoyed a long history of community support beginning with two years of local fundraising efforts and the procurement of three foundation grants that lead to the purchase of our site in 1976. In 1981, a third building was erected to house our toddler program. Numerous renovations and upgrades have been made possible throughout the years due to federal, state and local grants, generous donations from community members, and annual fundraising efforts. Each year the Parent Advisory Committee hosts a fundraising event to benefit the children and families at MECC. The community artists, merchants and citizens are very generous with donations for our silent auction, raffle prizes and door prizes for this event.
Children are encouraged to be active participants in their own learning. Allowing the curriculum to emerge from the students' interests, teachers use a project-based approach when planning developmentally appropriate experiences that build upon children's skills. The environment and experiences at MECC encourage active, playful exploration and experimentation. Purposeful teaching helps children gain knowledge, and develop skills and attitudes for life-long learning. We use the Desired Results Developmental Profile, the California Preschool Learning Foundations, and the California Preschool Curriculum Framework as tools to ensure we are providing the best possible program that meets the needs of the children and families in the community.
We are proud of our diverse team of professionals whose rich background, experiences and education have contributed to creating a quality program for children and families. Having a strong team who is dedicated to professionalism led us to seek NAEYC Accreditation. We began the accreditation process in 1998 when we learned that the California Department of Education was planning to offer additional funding to programs that offer high-quality services and this could be documented by NAEYC Accreditation. Our team was ready to take on this challenge, and the prospect of securing additional funding would serve to further elevate the quality of our program.
We spent almost a year preparing for the Accreditation process. We really shined in some areas such as Community Involvement, and Child Assessments, but needed to do some work on other areas. We scrutinized and reflected, we made changes and tweaked our changes, we adopted policies, re-vamped procedures, we debated, we observed, we asked many questions, we researched, we practiced, we whined, we cried, and we laughed. We sometimes threw our hands up in the air and felt the whole process was impossible!
In the end we discovered that nothing is impossible! The process was making us a stronger team, better equipped to offer a quality program because we no longer rested on our laurels; we had developed a habit of being reflective every day and in every aspect of the program.
We came away knowing the true value is in the journey and the process: something we have always tried to convey in our Child Development Practice. (This was a good thing because the end result we had first been striving for, additional Quality Dollars from California Department of Education never came to fruition…)
I would encourage any program to take this journey. NAEYC has done the research and provides the tools to guide you through the process. It won’t be easy, but nothing valuable ever is!