Membership
Why choose a cooperative preschool?
A co-op is a member-run organization. A cooperative preschool has both requirements and benefits that aren’t always found in a traditional preschool environment.
These include:
- Classroom time with your child
- A play-based learning environment
- Parenting and teaching education opportunities
- Getting to know your child’s peers and their families
- Performing a school job
- Lower tuition
- A higher adult-to-child ratio
- Fundraising opportunities
- Community involvement
- A non-discriminatory membership policy
- A say in the school’s business decisions
- Contributing your unique skills and talent
Is a co-op for me?
Becoming a member of a cooperative preschool requires a commitment of time and energy to the school, in addition to paying monthly tuition. However, tuition is typically lower than at traditional preschools, because the member families work in and out of the classroom to help run the school. At Brooklyn, our only paid employee is our teacher.
Many different types of families are able to make the co-op commitment at Brooklyn, including working parents, single parents, new parents, and lower-income families. Some families have one parent take on all the co-op responsibilities, while others split the responsibilities among one or more adults. Grandparents, nannies, aunts, and uncles have all parent-taught in the Brooklyn classroom and contributed their unique skills to our community, in order to meet their family’s co-op commitment.
At Brooklyn, we offer a nursery program that makes parent teaching more doable for parents with babies and toddlers. Babies up to 6 months old can be worn in the classroom during parent-teaching shifts. Children between 6 months and 3 years of age can go to our on-site nursery during their parent’s teaching shift.
You can learn more about membership at Brooklyn in our School Handbook
Learn more about our membership requirements, costs, and enrollment options.
Calendar
Our school year starts in early September. We have a slow start with teacher home visits, welcome days for smaller groups of students to get to know the space, and then the beginning of the year.
There is one mandatory training and four membership meetings that at least one adult from each family has to attend throughout the year.
There are many parallels with the Portland Public Schools academic calendar, but we do not follow it exactly. Our year ends in early June with the last day of classes, end of the year party, and clean up days with the whole community.
Once enrolled you will receive a more detailed calendar of events for the year.