Bolthouse Properties and Valley Montessori Academy hosted a groundbreaking Monday for the Academy’s Infant & Toddler Village expected to be completed in fall 2026.
The project, planned as an expansion of VMA’s existing campus in the Seven Oaks Business Park in southwest Bakersfield, marks a new chapter in early education in Bakersfield, organizers said Monday.
“We at Bolthouse Properties, we have a tagline: ‘Building a better community,'” said Jeff Eittreim, Bolthouse Properties’ vice president of development.
“And I can’t think of a more shining example of building a better community,” he said, “than Valley Montessori Academy here in the business park.”
The Infant & Toddler Village will introduce Montessori classrooms for infants as young as 6 months while expanding the school’s toddler and primary offerings.
Bolthouse Properties has been working on the plans for the project with owner-operator Oxana Raimondo and her husband, Mark Raimondo, for some time, Eittreim said.
“Because we knew the minute they opened,” he told the gathering, “they were bursting at the seams.”
Highlights of the new infant and toddler facility will include:
– An expanded edible garden promoting hands-on learning in sustainability and nutrition; and, – A forthcoming Spanish immersion program enriching linguistic and cultural development.
Oxana Raimondo thanked her Montessori teachers and administrators. She praised Bolthouse Properties and her general contractors Wallace & Smith for helping her realize the vision to build a child-centered place for early learning.
“This project started 10 years ago, and it started as a dream for my own child,” she said.
Mark Raimondo credited his wife’s strength and determination for making the vision become a reality.
It started in a garage, he said, grew to a location in Riverlakes, grew again to their current location — and now they’re about to grow again.
“What we saw as a need for us has become a need for all of us,” he said. “Has become a need for our world.
“Go to any restaurant at 5 or 6 o’clock and you’ll see 2- and 3- and 4-year-olds already in their phones. Reality is turned off,” Raimondo said.
People need to find a place where their children can learn the most important lesson: how to be quiet inside, he told the gathering.
“So, we’re proud to announce a couple things,” he said. “No. 1, we’re going to have what I believe is the only known meditation and yoga center in line with a preschool.”
It will be available not only to the children, but to adults as well.
There will also be a hands-on edible garden, the Virginia Garden, named for his late beloved mother.
Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh was there Monday to celebrate with the Raimondos and their partners in working together to make the vision come to life.
She spoke about the project as “vision for our future, vision for our children, vision for our community, in building a better Bakersfield.”
Article Provided by: Bakersfield.com
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