About Us

For over 50 years, hundreds of children traveled to the Cinquez Park building to learn, interact and find love and care at the Thelma B. Pittman Jupiter Pre-School.

This is the history:

The school, originally called the Jupiter Preparatory School, would not have been in existence without the efforts of Thelma Baxter Pittman, and later by her daughter, Ruth Lawson, in subsequent years who later became the Executive Director and CEO. They were supported and promoted at various levels by the citizens of the Jupiter area, who also realized, like Ms. Pittman, that the children in Jupiter needed a quality pre-school experience to prepare them for kindergarten and beyond. The nonprofit early childhood education program began in the Northwest District 12 Fire Department building, where Pittman found a space and room for the first class of 13 students in 1966. Since then, the pre-school has expanded several times. The school developed and grew classes to include an infant and toddler center that opened in 2006. What is most remarkable about this school is how it started.

Thelma Pittman wasn't wealthy. She and her husband Charles J. Pittman, came into their marriage with three children each, and went on to have three more children together. Charles was a pre-caster, making molds, and also was a janitor at Jupiter High School. Thelma was an African American domestic. They needed a safe environment for the last of their four children to go to pre-school while they worked. Thelma Pittman would then call various schools in the area looking for a childcare center to send her children. Each time she called a school they would ask her to come in to register, but once they saw her ethnicity she was turned away stating there was no more room in the school for her small children. After several attempts at enrolling her young children in local childcare centers, she decided to create a childcare center that was open to families of all backgrounds regardless of their race, creed, economic background and ability. She petitioned throughout the community about the need for a quality childcare center that was accepting of diverse cultural groups, and one that would provide a high quality educational experience that would be affordable, and thus have students on their way to school readiness. She communicated her vision and the Jupiter Community responded with support from the Jupiter-Tequesta Junior Woman’s Club, and the Jupiter Preparatory School Auxiliary, which set out to establish a non-profit preschool. The Jupiter Preparatory School, Inc., opened up its doors on February 1, 1966. 

And then.....

• In February 1971 the new and larger Jupiter Preparatory School building was completed and officially dedicated to the children and families in the community.

• In January 1994, after nearly 30 years of dedicated service to the children and families in the community, Jupiter Pre-School Inc. was renamed The Thelma B. Pittman Jupiter Preschool, Inc. in honor of its leading founder and first directress. After Mrs. Pittman’s retirement in 1995, Ruth S. Lawson, her daughter, was appointed Director of the School’s program.

• In January 2006, the old West Jupiter Volunteer Fire Station District #12 was demolished and construction on the new Infant and Toddler Care Center began.

• In September 2006, the official opening of the Infant and Toddler Care Center was accomplished with an increased licensed capacity of 105. This marked the beginning of the programs expansion of services to the community.

• Now 50 plus years later, the school continues to meet its mission to provide a quality, full-inclusion Early Childhood Education Program that stimulates and fosters the physical, cognitive, language, social and emotional development of young children one to five years of age. Offered at an affordable rate, the Early Childhood Education Program serves children from diverse backgrounds.