SLCC Expansion
At the Silver Lake Center for Creativity Preschool (SLCC), we are celebrating the start of a new school year and coming together as a community, once again. This year, we have more reason to celebrate: We will be expanding our mission and moving to a brand-new learning environment! Our new school will be located at 1140 Lemoyne Street in Echo Park. This new space will amplify and bring the SLCC magic into the future and open doors to more families in need of our care. We have officially begun the permitting, construction, and licensing process and aim to open our doors in the summer of 2024.
Additionally, we are thrilled to announce the launch of our brand new RIE-Certified Parent, Infant & Toddler programming at our new location. As of November 2023, The RIE Studio is officially open and enrolling children ages 0 to 2 years old. Please learn more about our new program facilitated by Jill Getto Lee, M.A. via Our Programs tab listed above.
Since 2017, SLCC has been at the forefront of research-driven, anti-bias early childhood education and innovative, educational parent roundtables. SLCC is known throughout Los Angeles as a place of thought leadership. We are a community of educators and parents committed to honoring children and childhood. We know that our values and understanding of young children inform and transform the way we teach and parent. At SLCC, children are seen as individuals, creative and competent thinkers, empathic collaborators, and citizens of the world.
Further, we know that children’s and families’ lives are enriched by multiple perspectives, by a celebration of differences within a rich ethos of belonging. Community, communication, collaboration, creativity, and research are the core values of our school and are what have made us thrive within the world of early childhood education here in Southern California. We are grateful and eagerly excited to move to our new location to carry these values and goals forward into the future.
Our values and goals have heavily informed our expansion mission and process. In early 2023, we designed a Parent Working Group with our enrolled families to discuss and understand the various palpable needs parents were seeking from our new location. We understood that parents valued our small-town feel along with our research-driven curricula, security, teacher-student ratios, mixed-age learning, appreciation of the outdoors, air quality, and location. While we are ecstatic for the move to 1140 Lemoyne, the search was not easy – we were determined to find a place that could feel like home and allow us to amplify all of these important needs communicated by our parents along with the desires of our team of educators. After nearly a year-long search for the right place, we are confident Lemoyne is the perfect location to expand and amplify our mission at SLCC for decades to come.
The transition to our new home will remove barriers to inclusivity, access, and advocacy and help us deliver on our mission to its fullest. As the result of this new property ownership, full-day and full-year program, robust tuition assistance provided by our district, and more space, we are now able to increase the diversity of our community and advocate with and for more families with young children for years to come. By opening the doors to our new, beautiful, home-like environment, attracting top-talent teachers and welcoming more families who are truly aligned with our mission and pedagogy, we envision a bright and long-lasting future for SLCC.
1140 Lemoyne’s inspiring amenities will amplify our goals and mission in myriad ways:
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A beautiful new building surrounded by various walkable recreational enhancements including Echo Park Lake which is one block away. We look forward to incorporating monthly walks around the lake for each class alongside parent volunteers.
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RIE Studio classes are available upstairs for parents, infants, and toddlers awaiting preschool enrollment. Families will have access to this profoundly rich and pedagogically aligned program offered independently by a long-standing RIE-Certified Associate on a weekly basis. Children enrolled in the RIE class will receive priority consideration for SLCC Preschool enrollment.
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Modern, airy classrooms filled with natural light, home-like charm, state-of-the-art appliances, newly renovated interiors, low teacher/student ratios, and designed for frequent indoor-outdoor flow. Our two mixed-age classrooms located on the ground floor will have independent access to the outside meal area, garden, and playground.
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A separate Parent Lounge located on the second floor of our building will provide a daily community space for parents to engage with each other, find educational resources in our Parent Library, enjoy coffee or tea after drop-off, nurse their infants, or touch base with our Head of School. This space is designed for parent-to-school collaboration and connections – invitations for dialogue for our entire community.
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Parking, parking, parking! Not only is our new campus adjacent to a large, public parking lot, our neighborhood has ample public parking available, along with a designated school Drop-Off and Pick-Up zone which we will have in front of school.
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Staying close by to our current location on N. Commonwealth will ensure we meet the commuting needs of our families and client demographic. Our new location is about a 15-minute drive from Highland Park and surrounding neighborhoods and an 8-10 minute drive from our current location on N. Commonwealth.
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Our state-of-the-art security system, zero-visibility fences, and gate codes will ensure our campus community is as secure as it possibly can be. In partnership with our designated city council member, Hugo Soto-Martinez, whose office is adjacent to our new campus, we will ensure that our community streets remain safe and pristine for our families and neighbors.
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We will have the luxury of being next door to the weekly farmer’s market, which will be incorporated into our afternoon Atelier di Cucina experiences for children to actively participate in the procuring of their organic, fresh and local cooking ingredients.
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With the additional space, we will be able to host our quarterly Parent Roundtables in person, allowing for a richer dialogue and community experience for our families.
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Our large outdoor area will allow us to enhance and grow strong connections to the natural world and environment of Los Angeles. Our playground will be primarily shaded with an ample sensory sand zone, outdoor art atelier, gross-motor lawn, cozy corners, a vegetable garden, mature guava, pomegranate and kumquat trees, and picnic areas for both classrooms to eat snacks and lunch together.
Prior to moving to our new location, we will be engaging in rich and meaningful dialogue with the children of SLCC to enlist their ideas, hopes, and dreams for their new classrooms. Once the construction is complete, we will host pre-opening tours for both current and future families and children.
In the coming weeks, we will resume our Parent Working Group discussions to share with you our visual plans for outdoor and indoor classroom layouts and gather more data from our community about ways to enhance families' experience at our new location.
Families currently on our waitlist who have already applied will be contacted for enrollment in the winter. All interested families who have yet to apply will have an opportunity to be considered as well.
This building, this expansion, and the promise of a long life for our school is a dream come true for us. To watch SLCC become deeply rooted in Los Angeles and reach and grow to maximize our potential, like the palms that surround our new home, makes the magic real and lasting.
None of this would be possible without the commitment, encouragement, faith, and trust of our parent community. We look forward to shepherding this mission beside you into the future.
For more information, questions, or suggestions, please email our Head of School