Mission
Discovery Schoolhouse, Inc.’s mission is to establish and encourage affordable, nurturing, creative, and educational spaces for a diversity of families and children by bringing together Milton and the Boston neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Mattapan.
We accomplish this:
by providing affordable, quality early childhood programming which is responsive to family needs, and staffed by well-trained and fairly compensated teachers;
through a multicultural, intergenerational community arts center, and
by providing access to income-based childcare tuition assistance for working families and related resources for providers and parents.
Our core values are creativity; participatory, hands-on learning; developmentally appropriate practices; supporting families; diversity; community; and affordability.
History
Discovery Schoolhouse, Inc. (DSI) was formed by a dedicated group of parents and teachers in 1992 in response to the closing of another school and the community need for affordable, quality, full-day childcare with a diversity of families which could serve both Milton and Boston and could provide a truly child-centered experience for children. DSI is a 501(c)3 childcare and community service program run by a small professional staff and overseen by a volunteer Board of Directors made up of parents of current and past students. Our community-wide program, the Milton Early Childhood Alliance, is guided by a community council composed of parents, providers, educators, clergy, public school and town officials, and other interested local individuals. The Executive Director of the school is a founder and sits on the Board of Directors.
From 1992 until 2009 DSI was located at 865 Brush Hill Rd., Milton, MA which in many ways was an unusual setting. Although the physical address was a wooded lot in Milton, Massachusetts, the school straddled the Boston-Milton town line, just 1.5 miles from Mattapan Square, and abutting Fairmont Housing, a Boston Housing Authority low-income housing development in Hyde Park. In November 2009 DSI relocated to 101 Blue Hills Ave., also in Milton. This location is about 1/4 mile from Mattapan Sq. and about 1.5 miles from Hyde Park. Because of our location, affordability, and accessibility, we are able to serve a diverse population of families from the Boston, Milton, and the surrounding communities.
Upon relocating to our new site in 2009, we established an intergenerational multicultural community arts center to offer a wide range of affordable arts programs, and, like our childcare program, bring together the racially, ethnically, and economically diverse population of our community.
In 1996 DSI was awarded the Community Partnership for Children (CPC) grant for the Milton community by the Massachusetts Department of Education. This major award, which nearly doubled our budget, helped us fulfill our mission to the broader community by forming – with community-wide support and participation – the Milton Early Childhood Alliance (MECA) through which we have provided a variety of community-wide services, including tuition assistance for working families, parent education, professional teacher training, and community-wide events. The MECA office is at a separate location in the First Congregational Church in Milton. We are very grateful to them for their continued support.