Hello City Council,
I wanted to submit a public comment for item H1 for the city council meeting tonight. The coop has been home for my family for 6 years now. I have a 7.5 yr old daughter who went through the coop and is a rising 2nd grader in an elementary school in Menlo Park. My 5 year old son will do his final pre-k year at the coop this fall. The Coop has been a transformative force in my family and in shaping our community. When we first signed up we were hopeful that the community would be more than just a buzzword, and boy did the coop deliver. When COVID hit and the school shut down in spring of 2020 I was pregnant w my second child. I’d heard of the meal train tradition of the coop with the birth of a child or during times of family hardships, but assumed with a July 2020 birth in the middle of Covid and outside the regular school calendar that I wouldn’t get to experience it. My family and I were shocked and touched beyond measure when meals showed up on our porch for contactless pickup after our second child was born in summer of 2020 for months. It solidified for us that the coop takes community seriously. Fast forward several years, and my family was going through a particularly difficult time. My father was admitted for a lengthy hospital stay at Stanford. I was splitting my time advocating for my father and raising two very young children. The coop came through once again. I can’t tell you how many families took the kids for play dates, dropped off food, and helped with pickup and drop off. At one point one parent swooped in and took my kids while we were waiting for an ambulance to arrive for my dad. This parent knew how sensitive my kids are and helped ensure they wouldn’t be overwhelmed with EMT/firefighters showing up to take my dad to the hospital. They say it takes a village to raise a family. And we have been lucky enough to find that village at the coop. It’s not by chance; it’s by design. Teacher Kristy’s leadership has ensured that we families help one another and build community whether it’s encouraging parent snack time during class or meal trains for families in need. That is what makes the coop so unique. This isn’t a daycare or a preschool where you drop your child off and go. You get to know the families and children in your school and are vested in their wellbeing.
Beyond the community, the coop has made me a better parent via parent education. This goes beyond tips and tricks to get your child to cooperate. This is about building up the whole child with positive parenting principles. Why is this important? Because our children are the bedrock of our society. I’ve seen it with my older daughter whose ability to handle conflict in elementary school was built on the foundation she got from the coop. The emotional intelligence built up in both child and parent is what sets this place apart from other educational institutions.
I am asking for the city council to do the right thing for the Menlo Park community. Give the coop the 10+ year lease it deserves with its preferred terms ($1/year) in order to keep its doors open. After three years of efforts in trying to resolve the lease, a stop-gap one year lease is a set back the Coop doesn’t deserve. Do the right thing and match the $1/year lease that Little House has until 2035.
Thank you.
Respectfully,
Lillian Mirzabagi, proud Coop parent of two children 2019-2026
Sent from my iPhone
