The History of
Chelsea Children’s Cooperative Preschool
The Chelsea Children’s Cooperative Preschool began with a phone call from Camie Noah to the North Lake United Methodist Church’s Minister’s wife, Rose Weeks, 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 news 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 daycare 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. Barnabas 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 led 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 until her retirement in May, 2006. Janie was instrumental in starting the Early Childhood Coalition in Chelsea and has been an active member of that organization. She has a Bachelor’s degree in education and has attended graduate school at Michigan State University in the area of Child Development. In August of 2006, Janie had one last trip down Main Street in the Chelsea Fair Parade. Instead of wearing a costume and holding a bunch of preschoolers on the Co-op’s annual float, Janie was the guest of honor in the parade as the recipient of Chelsea’s first Lifetime Achievement Award.
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.
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.
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 teaching 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 Daniel’s 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.
Upon Janie Brook’s retirement, Kendra Ford was hired as co-director in May 2006. Kendra is a past co-op parent. She has a BA from Michigan State, with a major in Social Work (child and family welfare) and a minor in Child Development. Kendra has worked for years with children in Washtenaw and Jackson counties, assessing their needs and finding ways to meet those needs.
In the fall of 2007, Courtney Aldrich became Director and the full time teacher for both the 3-year-old and 4-year-old classes. Deb Hubbard, a former parent and Co-op President, was hired as a teacher aide to help assist Courtney with her day-to-day planning and prepping and to assist in the classroom as called upon by Courtney Aldrich. The partnership between Courtney Aldrich and Deb Hubbard has shown how our organization has successfully continued to move forward to meet the needs of our preschool.
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.
In the fall of 2008, the Co-op began offering a brand new Young 5’s program in addition to its 2, 3 and 4 year old programs. This program is unique in that it serves children who are eligible for Kindergarten but need one more year of preschool, or who may be ready for Kindergarten but don’t meet the age cutoff. This is the first time the Co-op has offered two classes taught simultaneously by different teachers. Michelle Hochrein was the first to lead this class. Lena Carrara, former Co-op parent, taught this much needed program from 2013 until 2018. In 2017, Amanda MacDonald, another former Co-op parent, was hired as the Young 5’s teacher aide. For the 2018 school year, this duo will be teaching a multi-aged class, incorporating curriculum for both 3- and 4- year olds.
The summer of 2014 had two major changes for our Preschool. Claire Baushke became Director of the Co-op and teacher of the 3 and 4 year olds. Claire has a degree in Elementary Education from Michigan State University, and she was a former Co-op parent and aide in the Young 5s class. She showed true leadership as we changed the location of our preschool in August. The CCA closed and the preschool was moved to WSEC (Washington Street Education Complex). We were located in the 400 building, near our prior location at this Complex. Sue DeLong was hired in 2016 and Susan Orlandi-Johnson was hired in 2018 as teacher aides for the 4-year-old and 3-year-old classes, respectively. Their combined enthusiasm and passion for early childhood development are an asset to the Co-op’s rich tradition of play-based learning.
The summer of 2019 offered another exciting transition for the preschool -- a new home located within St. Paul Church of Christ on Old US 12 in Chelsea. Playground renovations, including a new play structure and natural playspace, were planned and completed in a cooperative effort between staff and parents. The Co-op spirit shone bright as many current and previous preschool parents and community members collaborated to make this move a shining success. Parents, students, and teachers alike have enjoyed the 2019/2020 school year in our fresh new space.
The pandemic brought about a unique set of challenges, but the preschool continued to thrive under the careful stewardship of the executive board and the devoted care from teachers Lena Carrara, Sue DeLong, and Claire Baushke. In 2022, Sandy Lantis and Martha Piper joined the team as teachers of one of two 4-year-old classes, and Charissa Keller joined Claire in the other 4-year-old class. In 2023, Laura Koch joined as the 2’s playgroup teacher.
In the fall of 2024, the preschool welcomed Laura Koch and Kristin Bingham as the lead teacher and teacher aide for the multi-age class, and Liz Kuhl joined Claire Baushke in the 3-year-old class. The preschool also began the Extension program, offered to 4-year-olds who were ready for a longer school day.