Beverly Hills educators want to know what services local families with young children might find most useful in a proposed early childhood learning center that will eventually be created at Hawthorne Elementary School. It would also provide expanded services for the youngest learners in Beverly Hills and their families.
Residents are encouraged to voice their opinions about those services by completing a survey distributed by the city and accessible at beverlyhills.org/schoolsurvey.
Additional services might include a daycare, sports programs or interactive learning. Another option for consideration on the survey are “mommy and me” classes to help toddlers bond with their parents and socialize with other families.
“The first step is to survey the community to understand what you want,” said Beverly Hills Mayor Dr. Julian Gold. “We encourage everyone to participate in the survey to help us design this program and to help us develop an effective early education program.”
The deadline for families to respond to the survey is Feb. 28.
The opportunity to create an early education center arose from the scheduled reopening of El Rodeo Elementary School following extensive renovations. Students in transitional kindergarten through fifth grade currently attending classes at Hawthorne will move to El Rodeo when the fall semester begins.
That will free up a field and numerous classrooms. The expanded services of the new early childhood learning center could be just one of multiple uses for the soon-to-be available space at Hawthorne Elementary.
Other options include repurposing the classrooms to bring some or all of the four preschool programs currently run by the city at separate campuses, Hawthorne, Coldwater Canyon and Horace Mann Elementary Schools, together into one building. City and district officials also considered converting parts of a portion of the property into meeting rooms and other administrative facilities during a meeting of an advisory committee assigned to come up with a plan for the early education center on Jan. 26.
The project is still in its planning phase, and a timeline for development has not yet been established. However, both City Council and BHUSD Board members have expressed great enthusiasm in moving it forward, according to BHUSD spokeswoman Rebecca Starkins.
