At the end of each year I often reflect on the successes and needed improvements in my life both professionally and personally. One of my needed improvements turned out to be one of my success.
As a business owner in general it can be difficult to feel supported and find resources that allow us to better our field. In the process of starting The Cove School, I found my resources to be limited. It’s been almost a year now since my first attempts at putting together some kind of support system for preschool owners. My goal was to bring together a group of like minded preschool owners for the purposes of networking, sharing ideas and resources, improving the quality of early childhood education and raising the bar a bit. Like many fields, so often owners look at other businesses as competition and often don’t want to give away any “secrets.” What is most astounding to me especially in education is that although in theory collaboration is highly encouraged there seems to be some limitations as to what is truly shared.
After approaching a few small preschools, I realized that it may be a little more difficult to get buy in on this. Almost a year later, I can officially say that after 1 meet and greet and a few meetings, a group has been established. In just a few short months, our group is in the beginning stages of forming a Preschool Association for West Seattle. We are really excited about it and hope that it will be a great resource for educators and parents. Updates of our progress will be posted here so be sure to stay tuned.