Background History
Academy Child Development Center, Inc.
was founded in July 1981 by Marilyn Fleetwood. The Center’s first location was a kindergarten classroom at Montrose Elementary School on Academy Way in Rockville, MD. Mrs. Ellen Goeden was appointed Director, and with two senior staff teachers, opened the center on September 8, 1981 with 13 children enrolled. When the public school closed, Academy moved to Rocking Horse Road Elementary School. Initially, two classrooms were leased and within a year, Academy had grown into four classrooms. We had begun a decade of service to the Rocking Horse community. Academy opened two new centers in 1988 at Cold Spring Elementary School in Potomac and Stone Mill Elementary School in North Potomac. The DuFief center opened in 1990, Charles Drew center in 1991, Georgian Forest Center in 1992, Academy Hills center in 2003 and Galway Center in 2009.
Soon after opening our center at Stone Mill, enrollment peaked and Academy parents and administration began planning for the impending space crunch. In response to this critical situation for working families, Academy applied for and received an IBM Initiative’s grant to build an institutional grade modular adjacent to the elementary school. Funding for this project was provided through the IBM Funds for Dependent Care Initiatives, administered by Work/Family Directions Corp. Academy began offering programs for infants, toddlers, preschool and school-age children in September 1991. The modular included space for a recuperating room for mildly ill children. The program also expanded to the multipurpose room within the Stone Mill school facility for before and after school care. An additional free standing facility was opened on the grounds of Cold Spring E.S. in August 2001 and Academy Hills of Rockville opened the doors to a new facility in 2003. With increased capacity we are now able to serve a greater number of families in the community as well as add programs for infants and toddlers. Due to teamwork and commitment, NAEYC accreditation was awarded to the Stone Mill Center in 1995 and DuFief Center in 2003. Galway Center opened as a result of Academy being chosen to provide high quality programs at the newly renovated Galway Elementary School in Silver Spring. The child care space was a funded by a cooperative project between DHSS and MCPS. As we celebrate more than three decades of service, Academy continues to provide outstanding programs for over 500 Montgomery County families. We are proud of our dedicated professional staff, high quality programs, and our supportive families. With the new millennium, Academy looks forward to the challenges of being a recognized leader in the rapidly growing field of early childhood education.
