Hill & Dale Family Learning Center is an outgrowth of a privately owned preschool operated in Pacific Palisades for over thirty years. When the owners, Eleanor and Lee Kendall, no longer wished to continue operating their school, a group of Hill & Dale parents decided to reorganize it as a non-profit corporation run by a parent-community Board.
Inspired by the strong educational philosophy of the Kendalls, we established the school with the following objectives: - To run a top quality educational child care program based on a strong guiding philosophy;
- To attract and develop a staff extensively trained in early childhood education and development;
- To compensate that staff with competitive wages and benefits; and
- To establish and nurture a strong parent education component which encourages parents to take an active role in understanding their child's development and participating in their education.
We opened our doors in September 1979 at 1512 Pearl Street in Santa Monica with 10 children. Less than a year later, we were at full enrollment with 25 children and have had a continual waiting list since that time. Judith Brunk became Executive Director, a position she still holds today. Hill & Dale moved its operations in August of 1984 to the business development at Colorado Place (Yahoo Center). This move into larger facilities offered new horizons for promoting quality educational child care and facilitating parenting education and skills. Hill & Dale at Yahoo Center has also been a highly successful experiment in developer-assisted creation of new child care facilities in the Santa Monica community.
As the program grew and the demand for infant care became greater, we opened our second Center in August of 1987 in a converted firehouse owned by the City of Santa Monica at the west end of Clover Park on Ocean Park Blvd. Hill & Dale holds a lease with the city for use of the building and Watt Industries, a local developer, committed funding and construction assistance necessary for building renovation and set up costs. This Infant/Toddler Learning Center is another example of public/private cooperation to provide necessary child care for Santa Monica families.
The success of our school validates the principles on which Hill & Dale Family Learning Center was established: non-profit status; well-qualified directing and teaching staff; parent participation; and a strong guiding philosophy. In 2000, we were proud to celebrate our 50th year of service to children and their families. In the spirit of this exciting anniversary, we are creating opportunities to provide information and support to educators in our community to expand our services to parents and children.
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