news-record.com

A local day-care center, opened 28 years ago by a group of parents dissatisfied with child care options, will have an open house Saturday.

“We are opening doors to the community again so that they can see what we have to offer,” said Susan Young, interim director.

College Hill Childcare Cooperative, or “co-op,” is a nonprofit corporation founded in 1981. Its Web site claims it is the area’s only parent-operated child-care center.

“We want to revitalize ourselves in the community during these tough economic times,” said Michelle Kennedy, a parent volunteer at the co-op. “It is really a one-of-a-kind day care center, and we currently have spots open.”

Though the center has changed — with new families and the center moving into its third location — it has stayed true to its original principles, Young said.

“We go by the phrase ‘Quality Childcare Through Parent Participation’ because we want to emphasize parent involvement,” she said.

College students who once attended the co-op have come back to volunteer, she said, and music teacher Susan Burkholder has children who are co-op “graduates.”

At College Hill Childcare, parents may participate in their children’s classrooms, get to know their children’s friends and teachers and directly contribute to their children’s learning.

The co-op is run as a nonprofit corporation by parents and a six-member professional staff. Teachers are paired with a parent staff assistant who works alongside the teacher. Parents are not only encouraged to participate, they’re required.

Parents must work four hours a week as a staff assistant, attending a monthly parents’ meeting, and four hours a month participating on committees, Young said.