There is a sense of familiarity when you visit The Little School of Hillsborough. Perhaps it is the happy children, too busy with their activities to notice a visitor, or the walls covered with drawings and brightly painted murals. Maybe it is the delicious smell of lunch, the playground with its playhouse and stage, or the adjoining garden planted by the students. But mostly it is the overall ethos of the school—the sense of wonder and joy—that is so reminiscent of Summit.

The similarities between the two schools is not a coincidence, as it was co-founded by Jennifer Adams Dock, a member of the Summit Class of 1986 and daughter of School Head Sandra Adams. Jennifer recognizes a series of karma-like events that led to her founding the school in 2004, but it is a small leap to believe that it was destiny.

The daughter of two professional educators, dad Fred was Associate Superintendent of the WS/FC Schools for many years, it is easy to see where Jennifer gets the inspiration and drive to create a school of excellence. She was a special education teacher for five years before returning to the University of Delaware where she received her masters in special education. She also received a masters and a specialists level degree in school psychology. She and her husband, Steve, moved back to NC in 2003 where Steve took a job as a chemist in the Research Triangle area. They settled in Hillsborough as Jennifer completed her internship as a school psychologist in the Alamance/Burlington School system—where she continues to work part-time as a school psychologist at a middle school.

Thrilled to be back in NC and near her parents, Jennifer began searching for day care for her son Bryan. “I quickly realized how difficult it was to find a great school that had an opening,” she said. “I went to 40 of the best schools in the area, but I was never fully satisfied with the quality.” About this time, Jennifer moved to a new neighborhood. The tiebreaker when choosing her house was the fact that it was on Summit Drive—“that sold it,” she says. She soon became fast friends with her neighbor, Christa Niven, who also had experience as an educator. When Jennifer met her, she was the Head of The Summit School of Chapel Hill (another sign!), a school for adolescents with drug and alcohol problems. On their long walks, they discussed their mutual frustration with finding quality day care. The more they talked, the seed of an idea began to grow and they became convinced that they should open their own school.

Christa had visited a local Montessori school, located in a church facility in Hillsborough, and found they were moving. After the women shared their vision to open a community-based day care center that would provide affordable, high quality, year-around full and part-time care, the church board approved their plan. They signed the lease in April, 2004, and immediately started interviewing and hiring teachers with plans to open that fall. “All we had were our credentials, a plan and a brochure,” says Jennifer. To get the word out, they posted information at the church and in the community, left brochures in neighborhoods where they walked, and in local pediatricians’ offices.

“Our mission was to serve working mothers and we were determined to start a school that met the N.C. state criteria for a five-star day care center as soon as we could,” says Jennifer. The rating system is based on stringent requirements including teacher education, the curriculum, and the student teacher ratio.

They weren’t able to occupy the building until August 1 and the opening of school was September 1. It took a month of 16-hour work days to finish the building by the start of school. With few exceptions, such as plumbing installation, they did all of the renovation themselves—and it was definitely a family affair. “We could not possibly have managed it without the help of our families,” says Jennifer. “Dad laid the floors, worked on the playground and helped with the business plan. My husband, Steve, and Christa’s husband, Jim, built the sandbox and playhouse and Christa’s dad built the playground stage,” she says. Mom, Sandra, cooked and kept everyone fed and Jennifer’s mother-in-law moved in to take care of her children, Bryan and Collin, now five and two.

They scoured yard sales and consignment shops for furniture and drove to IKEA in Atlanta for a vanload of furniture. The Summit connection widened when former Summit Associate Head Anne Johnston came to talk to the staff and parents about the Reggio philosophy of education, upon
which The Little School’s curriculum is based. Reggio pre-schools emphasize a saturated learning environment with no boundary between daily life activities and learning activities; an open-ended, long-term project approach to learning; and an emphasis on parent involvement. It is based upon the belief that children are strong, capable, creative thinkers who can explore their ideas in many ways.

By the time they opened in September, 2005, word-of-mouth had spread and they were three-quarters full with a section each of toddlers, middlers and pre-schoolers—a total of fifty students, nine teachers and Jennifer and Christa as administrators. This past summer, only one year after opening, they achieved their goal of a five-star certification—an achievement of which they are justifiably proud. “This was a really big deal and more calls from potential families started coming in,” says Jennifer.

Last year, they applied for a grant from Duke University. The grants are available to schools that demonstrate excellence and will give priority to children of Duke employees. “At the time we applied for the grant, two-thirds of our families had a parent who worked at Duke,” says Jennifer. They used the funds to create a sensory garden with a water garden, a vegetable garden and a toddler playground.

One of their areas of focus has been serving students with different needs—especially autism. One of their original students, a child with autism, began receiving sensory integration training from an outside teacher who shadowed the child throughout the day. They noticed how well the Reggio philosophy meshed with this training and the school now serves four autistic children—collaborating with the local public school districts and using speech therapists, occupational therapists and behavioral specialists from that system.

“We get calls from crying parents who tell us no pre-school is willing to help their child,” says, Jennifer. “The rewards we receive from working with these children are much greater than the work we do.”

Although Jennifer says her parents could not have been more supportive in helping to get the school ready, she admits that they were more than a bit skeptical when she initially told them of her plans. Fred shared the grim statistics on how many new businesses fail and Sandra was most concerned about Jennifer’s well being as a busy young mother. But once Jennifer told them she was moving ahead with her plans, she says they have been totally supportive. “I guess ignorance really is bliss,” says Jennifer. “We were too naive to ever consider that it wouldn’t work.”

In their second year, The Little School of Hillsborough is thriving—full of laughter and excitement and enriching activities. Parents actively volunteer and help with lunch which is catered and served family-style. On Gardening Day, forty parents came to help--operating a backhoe and digging holes for the fence.

Families have been so pleased with the school that they persuaded Jennifer and Christa to open a class for infants. They renovated space in the church next door and opened the first of this year with a full roster of students.
After graduating from Summit, Jennifer attended public schools and still works part-time as a school psychologist. But the dream she had for The Little School was clearly grounded in her Summit experience. “I think our school has some of the same soul and spirit,” she says. As a Summit student and daughter of the Head, the School became an extended family for Jennifer. “And now, I’ve created another family,” she says.

The philosophy of The Little School of Hillsborough as stated in their brochure is “Nothing Without Joy.” Maybe that is why it feels so much like Summit.