The Chelsea Children’s Cooperative Preschool began with a phone call from the North Lake United Methodist Church’s Minister’s wife, Rose Weeks, to Camie Noah, suggesting that there was a need for rural children to play together. Following this phone call, a group of several friends and their children began working together, meeting at each other’s homes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  The group started on March 1, 1972.  The future dream was to start a cooperative preschool at the North Lake United Methodist Church Youth Building in September of 1972.   

By September of 1972, the group had grown to twelve families with Camie Noah as the teacher and Rose Weeks as the Treasurer.  This was a volunteer project, and all the funds went toward the future occupancy of the Youth Building.  The church building wasn’t completed until January of 1973, so the children met at the Noah home.  Then in January, came the disheartening new that, although the church building had met all county and state requirements, the State Fire Inspector insisted on another exit for the building to issue a day care license.  The church agreed to take on the project, with the financial support from members of the preschool so that the preschool could open the fall of 1973.   

Loree Stafford took over as a volunteer teacher in March of 1973 and gave constant help and encouragement in setting up the North Lake Co-op Preschool.   

In 1975, North Lake Co-op Preschool applied for, and received the status of Non-Profit organization and became incorporated.   

During the summer of 1981, new fire safety regulations again became a problem.  The necessary building alterations would have been financially imprudent, so North Lake Cooperative Preschool had to move to a new site.   

St. Barnabus Episcopal Church on Old U.S. 12 became the school’s new home.  With the church’s cooperation and extensive work from members, the facility was ready for occupancy in September of 1981.   

Loree Stafford retired in 1986 after the school year ended in May.  Marilyn Van Gunst was hired as teacher and director of the program.  She was employed from the summer of 1986 until 1987 when her husband’s job forced them to relocate out of state.   

The move from North Lake to St. Barnabas lead to the decision to rename the school.  On March 8, 1988 the school officially became Chelsea Children’s Cooperative, Incorporated.   

Jane Brooks joined the staff in 1987 and has served as director and teacher ever since.  Janie was instrumental in starting the Early Childhood Coalition in Chelsea and has been and active member of that organization.  She has her Bachelor degree in education and has attended graduate school at Michigan State University in the area of Child Development.  In addition she attends yearly conferences.   

Sue Gillikin became a part time employee in 1987.  She acted as a “paid assist” to help parents who were unable to work in the classroom.  The following year she helped develop the two-year-old program and also team-taught the three-year-old program with Janie.  Sue and Janie worked together until Sue left in 1994.   

Nancy Hanselman and Janie Bowdish were involved in the co-op as classroom aides over the next few years but at the present time Janie is the school’s sole paid employee.   

In 1998, the school changed its location once again.  They moved from the church to the Washington Street Education Center (the old Chelsea High School).  The move itself was completed in less than two weeks and before school was scheduled to start.  Many people were responsible for making our transition to a new facility as smooth as possible.  An open house and dedication ceremony was held in October.   

In May of 2004 Courtney Aldrich was hired as co-director to teach the 3-year old program while Janie Brooks continued to teach the 4-year old program. Courtney was a six-year co-op member, and served on the preschool board for four years, twice as president. Courtney began her professional career as a mechanical engineer at Ford, but soon realized her true love was teaching, and earned her teaching certificate at Eastern Michigan University in 1996. While caring for her young children she worked part-time teaching adult community education classes in Chelsea, and tutored inmates working on their G.E.D. at the Cassidy Lake Special Alternative Incarceration facility. Her work with children includes leading preschoolers at Chelsea First United Methodist Church’s “Creative Play” playgroup, teaching Chelsea Community Education “Super Saturday” classes, teaching an advanced math extension program for second graders at North Creek Elementary, and teaching Sunday school at Chelsea First United Methodist Church.

In September of 2004, the school moved to the Chelsea Center for the Arts (CCA) building, located on the corner of Congdon and Summit streets in the neighborhood just west of the downtown area. This lovely old building for many years served as a parochial school for St. Mary’s Catholic Church. The building was built in 1908, suffered a fire in 1925, and was re-built shortly afterward. In 1998, the church sold the building to actor Jeff Daniels and his wife Kathleen, who then donated the building to the Chelsea Center for the Arts. During the summer of 2004 the co-op conducted extensive renovation of two first floor classrooms, and converted the parking lot into a combined playground and parking lot area.

Past and present cooperative families are proud of our school’s fine reputation and tradition of excellence. Not only do we provide a solid and sound first experience for children in our community but we support parents by giving them opportunities to network with each other and practice developmentally appropriate parenting techniques while they interact with children and other adults in the classroom. Many parents have gone on to become extremely active and involved in school and community affairs. A few mothers have become teachers in other early childhood programs.

Chelsea Children’s Cooperative Preschool is thriving today because of the commitment of its members.