Bea Romer’s sons had gone to preschool at the Colorado Women’s College, but when it closed down, she was in need of a school for her daughter, Mary. Bea, along with cofounders June Wood and Ludmilla Glascock, persuaded Bea’s father, the senior pastor at Montview Presbyterian Church, that Montview needed a preschool. It started in 1964 with one four-year-old class in the basement where the choirs currently practice.
Having already graduated from CSU with a degree in child development, Bea returned to school to take additional courses to become certified as a director. She and the other founders wanted Montview to be a school whose teachers met high professional standards with degrees in education. She asked her master’s degree teachers to serve on the preschool board.
Montview was founded on the belief in community, where all families are welcome. It was to serve not just the children of the church, but those from the surrounding neighborhood. Tuition scholarships for families who needed assistance were a part of the original mission of the school, and Bea is happy that Montview’s families continue to raise funds to keep this mission alive.
Another founding principle of the school was parent participation. Bea strongly believed, and still does, that a school should educate the parents as well as the children.
Like many of us today, Bea cherishes the friends she made at Montview, many of them still close today. She came to understand that as new parents, we are often anxious about how to be the best parents we can be, and friendships developed with other new parents can be lifesaving. They create special bonds that last forever.
Bea stopped teaching after her daughter Liz was born. But Montview has always held a special place in her heart. We owe her a debt of gratitude for having the vision of a great preschool, and for making it happen.
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