Our Vision: Enriching every child’s life to promote:
Courageous students
Life-long learners
Compassionate leaders
Our Mission: Clayton Early Childhood Center provides engaging, challenging, and developmentally appropriate play experiences in a safe, nurturing, and loving educational environment.
Our Story
Clayton Early Childhood Center began as a partnership between parents and teachers who imagined a school that would provide loving, creative, and thoughtful education to children from their very first weeks of life. Momentum built and the future of CECC came into focus: An intimate, educational community where families and teachers work together to support their children’s health, happiness, development, and learning. Parents utilized their skills, formed a board, and opened the preschool in 2012.
Today, CECC offers quality care and education in a tranquil, homelike setting, at competitive tuition rates, with flexible, full-day programs (7:30 am to 6:00 pm) that help meet the needs of working parents without additional before or afterschool care.
We work to build long-term relationships with the families we serve, and consider the opportunity to share in their children’s growth and development to be a great responsibility and privilege.
Our school is a nonprofit, cooperative effort. We are committed to maintaining responsible, transparent, and flexible practices to ensure that the organization will grow and evolve with its members.
Our Philosophy
Professionalism: In order to cultivate excellence and encourage innovation across our programs, CECC provides and supports ongoing education and professional development for all faculty and staff.
Reciprocity: In order to foster trust, respect, and collaboration, CECC promotes regular, open communication between all members of our school community.
Community: In order to nurture our students as global citizens, CECC embraces the diversity and complexity of their families and backgrounds, and seeks opportunities for shared experience.
Discovery: In order to engage and challenge our students, CECC promotes active, hands-on learning, letting children find their own way with teachers as their guides, and emphasizing the joy of learning.
Transparency: In order to fairly represent all members of our school community, CECC commits to both a spirit and a practice of openness in all activities.
Sustainability: In order to ensure the long-term health of our school and our broader community, CECC commits to developing responsible and prudent policies that take into account all stakeholders, as well as the natural world.
Our Strategic Plan
Our strategic plan is intended to be a living document, and a roadmap to guide our progress as we continue to look ahead. It contains a refined mission and vision, identification of four core pillars of focus, and broad ideas for how each focus area will be fulfilled.
Our four core pillars are:
Create Exceptional Child Experiences
Promote Community Engagement
Plan for the Future
Invest in Teachers & Staff
