Castro Valley Parent Nursery School is a parent participation co-op preschool serving Castro Valley since 1949. The Co-op is all about parents working together to make their child’s first school experience enriching and enjoyable. Ultimately, the children and the parents leave the program with shared knowledge, friendships, and memories to carry to kindergarten and beyond.

2023-2024 Tuition is $265 per month, paid for 10 months (Aug-May). Tuition may increase slightly each year to reflect rising costs of operation.

Yes. Children are expected to be potty trained or well into the process of training, so the school and Parent can be in partnership in helping with their toileting needs.  Often, seeing other children going to the toilet will motivate potty-training.  

During enrollment, families complete a school job survey to indicate skills, experiences, and preferences that may align with various school jobs. There is a job for everyone at CVPNS ranging from gardening and maintenance to field trip planner, supply buyer, and lots of creative jobs. Some jobs require being at school and others can be done from home. We estimate that each school job requires approximately an hour a week of your time. However, some jobs such as an event planning job will not require weekly work but will be more hours spent closer to the planning and execution of the event. 

Workday parents participate in a mandatory orientation and ongoing monthly parent education that offers training and helpful reminders about how to best support our preschool children in the classroom. Work cards for each provide you with details of what to do at what time. As parents move through the various workday station rotations, they find more ease and comfort in the classroom. CVPNS provides both workday instructions and a handbook on how to deal with common preschool behaviors/scenarios. The credentialed teacher/director, fellow workday parents, and board members are all here to support your adjustment and success within the co-op. 

We are a parent education program through Castro Valley Career and Adult Education (CVACE). A portion of our costs is offset because of this collaboration. We have one employee, the Teacher/Preschool Director. Parents give their time and energy in place of paying the high cost of childcare. Ultimately, we are a non-profit and a sizable portion of our budget depends on fundraising in order to provide quality materials in a rich, stimulating environment. Each family must participate in the mandatory fundraising events for the year, even if they are not attending the actual event. 

We have a Conditional Use Permit, which allows CVPNS to operate a preschool in a residential area. The conditional use permit specifically states: “[This permit is] subject to a 5-year Planning Staff to verify compliance, and shall remain revocable for cause in accordance with Section 17.54.030 of the Alameda County Zoning Ordinance.” If the planning department receives complaints from our neighbors, CVPNS could lose their permit, resulting in the school being shut down. It is critical that the parking and traffic rules are followed in order to remain in good standing with our neighbors.

Parents of new babies get 6 weeks of paternity leave in which they are not required to attend mandatory business and curriculum meetings. Families are still required to perform their weekly workdays and school jobs during this time. Many families arrange for workday subs or swaps, working for others before the baby is born (or after) and they cover your shifts while you are out. Some individuals opt to have a pre-approved family member or nanny cover their workdays. After this six-week period, infants can attend the mandatory business and curriculum meetings until they are 6 months of age. Parents are not allowed to have infants or other siblings attend their workday shift with them.

Many of our families have one or two working parents with some job flexibility to accommodate co-op participation. The co-op is not a drop-off program and participation of each family is required, however, workdays families can have another designated adult (grandparent, nanny, friend, aunt, uncle, etc.) work your workday. For continuity, we ask that the same individual(s) work recurring workdays (we understand an occasional illness or emergency may happen). Adults working in the classroom must meet immunization requirements and be fingerprinted.

Limited scholarships are available from the school and are provided on a limited basis given the needs of the family.