Berkeley ECE Harold Jones and Aquatic Park School

Hi,

While not directly familiar with ECEP Harold E. Jones, I am familiar with ECEP Dwight location staff AND have committed to sending our daughter to the Harold E Jones site for this fall.  Actually, I just had our teacher parent intake meeting and the teachers I met seem lovely are very experienced.  Though the site is one of the older ECEP sites, apparently they have benefitted from several new upgrades including sunshades for patio play, and lots of water features, for explorative play.  Their philosophy is play based learning and if our experience at the Dwight location is any indication, we think our daughter will absolutely love it.

We had concerns about our daughter not yet being fully potty trained, and the teachers assured us that they work on skills together with the kids, and expect most will be potty trained within the first couple of weeks.  We are looking forward to having our little one join the Harold E Jones program for fall.  Best wishes!

My daughter who is about to enter 1st grade was in ECEP from infancy through age 5, including Dwight, the Clark Kerr toddler center, and 2 years at Harold Jones preschool. Addar, one of the assistant teachers at HJ, was especially lovely with kids. The facility is great - lots of outdoor space, including a covered area where kids can do arts and crafts and eat most meals. We were spoiled by the high quality nutrition program, and it was nice not to have the hassle of packing snacks and lunches.

One thing to understand about the program is that it's managed by UCB and its bureaucracy. That comes with resources, like a minimum of 2 rather than 1 fully licensed teacher per class, teachers who are underpaid for what they do but who have full health benefits and a pension, a pool of filly licensed substitute teachers, the nutrition program, and student assistants. An active parent advisory committee and their connections to researchers at UCB who use ECEP to help train Ed and Psych researchers helps to secure continued UC support for the program. The downside is that there can be parental frustrations caused by centralized staff placement decisions. Overall, my daughter received loving care in an enriching environment, and I never worried about her safety or well-being in the program.