Our History

The Acton Cooperative School was founded in October of 1957, when a group of mothers, guided by a representative of the Acton Community Center, organized the Community Cooperative School. They wanted the school to furnish the training and experiences that help children prepare for their first years of school. The school met in the old Theater III building with one mother assisting the teacher each day and two mothers caring for the 23 3-year-olds.

By 1959, the school had grown to 88 students and four teachers, and by 1960, we had grown to 110 students and seven teachers. In 1965, new state day-care school requirements forced us to close our classes held at the Community Center. However, during the summer of 1966, the Community Center did extensive renovations on their building, and we were able to resume classes there in the fall of 1966. In February 1973, we became known as the Acton Cooperative School, Incorporated (a non-profit organization). We relocated to the West Acton Baptist Church and have been housed there ever since. In the beginning, we had two 3-year-old classes, one 4-year-old class, and one pre-k class. In the 1990s, we were able to add the lower floor to our school and since then we have had seven classes.

Accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children in 1993, we have maintained our accreditation since then, and we are now accredited until 2013. The school was the first preschool in Acton to be nationally accredited. The school is under the licensing authority of the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC). The constitution as well as EEC standards and regulations are available in the office.