It is a privilege and an honor to lead this mission for our church, to work with these dedicated staff and to serve the wonderful parents and children in this community. Our hope is that Virginia Hills Baptist Church Preschool continues helping children to Learn, Laugh, Love in a Christian environment for another 50 years and beyond.
In September of 1961, Virginia Hills Baptist Church started a Kindergarten Program. Our Pastor at that time was our founding Pastor, Rev. Bill Davenport. The Kindergarten at VHBC began with three teachers and 28 students. In those days, the Pastor was the Principal of the school.
The VHBC Kindergarten continued for six school years through June, 1967. At that time Fairfax County Public Schools began having Kindergarten and our school closed its doors.
Just a few short years later in 1972, we began a preschool childcare called Virginia Hills Baptist Church Mother’s Day Out. It began with three staff members and twelve children. The Mother’s Day Out program started out on Tuesdays & Thursdays only.
In 1976, Lois Ann Doyle took over as Director with 4 staff members and 42 children. In 1978, it expanded to three days per week.
Jean Stanley became the Director in 1980 with nine staff and 87 children. Over the years of Jean’s 20 + year tenure as Director, the program grew to as many as 150 students, 22 staff members and four days per week.
As Jean battled cancer, long-time staff member, Mary Ann Houpe, became Interim Director and took over the Directorship after Jean went to be with our Lord. Virginia Hills Baptist Church MDO became Virginia Hills Baptist Church Preschool and our program continued thriving.
In 2010, Mary Ann announced her retirement and Christine Page was hired as our 5th director to follow in the footsteps of outstanding predecessors.
In 2012, VHBC Preschool began offering extended hours until 3 pm for families that needed a longer day for their children. Shortly thereafter, with parents needing full-time care and staff needing full-time employment, we expanded our program to offer full time as an option. Families began inquiring about Before and After Elementary care as the FCPS SACC program had such a long waiting list. VHBC Preschool met the needs of our community and began offering care to elementary-aged students before and after school.
In 2020, with COVID-19 in our midst and FCPS schools going virtual, our community sought for in-person schooling for their Kindergarteners. We decided to go back to our roots and open one Kindergarten class and then another mid-way through the year.
We are excited to announce that we have sold some of our property to a senior living facility (Brightview). With the proceeds from that sale, we will be building a new facility for our school. Demolition began in Fall 2022 and will last through 2025 (or longer). Our preschool operations will be at a temporary location; 2006 Belle View Blvd. Alexandria, VA.
We are so excited to be getting a new building that better suits our needs as an early childhood education center; the plans are to have eight large classrooms with bathrooms along with sinks and storage located inside each classroom. The first floor classrooms will have doors with direct access to a new playground. The plan is to have the classrooms have observation windows so the students can be observed without disrupting the flow of the classroom. We will have a multi-purpose room which will serve as our Music/Movement classroom as well as our Elementary Extended Care room. Our new building will be designed with a Kiss and Ride drop off loop to allow better traffic flow.