After nearly 40 years, Annette’s Preschool changes its name to First Roots – Wild Roots. Becomes the first early education program in Vermont to set a living wage benchmark of $17.50/hr as its minimum starting salary to all staff.

(HINESBURG, VT- January 2022)  After nearly 40 years, Annette’s Preschool serving Chittenden and Addison families changes its name to First Roots – Wild Roots. Becomes the first early education program in Vermont to set a living wage benchmark of $17.50/hr as its minimum starting salary to all staff.

After more than three decades as Annette’s Preschool, current owners Andrew and Andrea Sambrook announced today that they are bringing all their programs under the First Roots – Wild Roots name.  Its school age programs will also be renamed as Treehouse at Wild Roots.

“This change better reflects our nature based approach to early education”, Sambrook said. “In Fall 2020 we opened two new highly anticipated infant and toddler programs as First Roots, and this latest name change now allows us to unify the Wild Roots preschool programs with the First Roots birth to three programs under one canopy – much like the trees in our new logo, they said. “One of our guiding principles is to ‘Keep Kids Wild!’, Sambrook jokes, “So the new name aligns with this part of our program Mission!”

The First Roots location in Underhill-Jericho was the first Infant/Toddler collaboration with any Public School in Vermont – the Mount Mansfield Unified Union School District (MMUUSD). 

“Today its our pleasure to announce another first for our programs – as of March 1, 2022 every employee whether part-time or full-time will earn at least $17.50/hour as a salary equivalent.” Sambrook said.  First Roots – Wild Roots have also committed to paying a “thriving” salary by 2027 allowing for a sustainable career and a professional level of compensation for all early educators.  First Roots – Wild Roots are using a 2021 study by National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition to benchmark the requirement for two bedroom wage. “We have taken the decision not to wait for Federal or State action on compensation. We think that our teachers deserve to be able to afford to live in Vermont with a single salary rather than having to take on several jobs in order to work at what they love to do.”  Sambrook was not surprised by the reaction of First Roots –  Wild Roots parents in the program. “When we announced this we had universal agreement that this was the right step to take.” Sambrook stated.

First Roots – Wild Roots is a nature based early education program located in Hinesburg and Underhill serving Addison and Chittenden counties. It provides early education programs for 150 children aged 6 weeks to 8 years. It has been a member of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR) since 2013.

Enquiries about this Release to:

Andrea Sambrook

andrea@bewilder-vt.com

914-844-8670

 

Andrew Sambrook

sambrook@bewilder-vt.com

914-441-8811