History

For 40 years, Premier Academy has provided quality early care and education with a strong parent component to low-income families in metro Atlanta. Premier initially operated from 1971 to 1973 as a research and demonstration project under the name Bedford Pine Child and Resources Center. In 1973, the center organized as a nonprofit organization to better meet the needs of the community. Over the next 10 years, Bedford Pine expanded to become a United Way agency. We operated two facilities (Angier Avenue and David T. Howard) in the Bedford Pine community from 1976 until 2005, when the two locations in this community merged into what remains today as Angier Avenue.

In January 2004, the Minnie Howell Child Development Center located in Atlanta's Orchard Knob community in southeast Atlanta opened. Early Learning Property Management (ELPM) renovated a former elementary school into a spacious and welcoming facility and asked Premier Academy to operate the program. In August 2005, Premier began offering after-school activities, enrichment opportunities and summer programs for school-age children through fifth grade at Minnie Howell for children through fifth grade from neighboring schools.

Both of the Premier Academy locations are committed to quality and have received accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) since 1996. Throughout its history, Premier has a high percentage of low-income families, many of whom reside in metro Atlanta's most marginalized and underserved communities. Today, over 85% of our children require need based assistance. Because we fundamentally value parent engagement in a child's educational life, we have adopted a parent-as-partner philosophy. Hereby, we encourage active parental involvement through programs, events and activities. Our Parent Coalition is committed to hosting workshops, social gatherings and other activities for parents, which typically draw a strong attendance. Furthermore, two voting positions are reserved on the Board of Directors for parent representatives as a way of ensuring parental involvement in the decision making process and building leadership capacities with in the community of parents.