1967
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JO’S Learning Academy


JO’S Learning Academy, (formerly known as JO’S Daycare), was founded in 1967 when Joceal Price began to offer childcare services for neighborhood families from her home.  Ms. Jo, as she is affectionately known to family and friends, believed that children were most likely to succeed if they were cared for in a nurturing and loving environment with an abundance of personal attention.  During the thirty plus years in business she cared for several generations of children from families throughout Milwaukee.  Many of these families have children currently enrolled in the Academy.  Ms. Jo continues to work at the North Avenue site and is there daily using her skills, knowledge and experience to ensure children receive nutritious meals, hugs and love that only she can give.  She also provides support and guidance for young families of children.

Schnell Price Lambert, Ms. Jo’s daughter, after pursuing a corporate career in marketing for over ten years, knew she wanted to return to her hometown and do something that would have a larger and more significant impact on the community.  Therefore, in 1997 she decided to follow in her mother’s footsteps to provide high quality early education and care for central city families.  In addition, Schnell wanted to provide opportunities for employment and training for women and men in their community who were interested in working to improve the education and well-being of young children and their families.

Schnell expanded on her mother’s model of childcare and purchased a home in the Washington Heights neighborhood.  As enrollment grew, a second home was purchased, which also quickly filled to capacity. With full enrollment at both sites, she decided to transition from a licensed family childcare provider to a licensed group center.

2001
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JELA North


To fulfill her desire to provide quality childcare services that was accessible for central city families, Schnell purchased property on North Avenue. To ensure JO’S Early Learning Academy-North offered high quality care, Schnell used her own financial resources and partnered with Legacy Bank to renovate the building to meet the educational needs of young children and to furnish and equip JO’S with quality equipment.  She wanted JO’S to be an example of a “quality childcare center” in central city since only a few examples existed.

In 2001, Schnell was asked by Milwaukee Public Schools to utilize the second floor of the center for Hi Mount Elementary School.  This collaboration became an opportunity to offer childcare services as well as after school program for children attending Hi Mount in one location.  In that same year, JO’S Daycare Academy began partnership with Next Door Foundation to provide on-site childcare services for children six-weeks to five years of age at their facility.  In 2005 Next Door expanded the collaboration and began providing Head Start services at JO’S North Avenue site. Currently, Next Door is our provider for our JELA South and Acelero Learning has been in partnership with JELA North for over eight years.

2003
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JELA South


In June 2003, Schnell opened JO’S Early Learning Academy-South at 3027 West Greenfield Avenue to provide the same quality of early childhood services to Milwaukee’s south side children and families.  In 2004, JO’S began a partnership with Guadalupe Head Start to provide Head Start classes at the Greenfield site.  This offered the community additional access to a much-needed bilingual early childhood as well as infant/toddler care and an after-school program.  The collaborative partnership with Guadalupe Head Start ended in 2016 and continued a partnership Next Door Foundation.

2015
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JO’S Learning Academy School


Since JO’S Early Learning Academy flourished very well, Schnell decided to expand education to children over the age of three. In 2015, she bought the building right next to the childcare center to operate her first elementary school. Partnering with Cardinal Stritch University, Schnell opened the doors to students from kindergarten to 1st grade in. A year after, a 2nd grade classroom was added to the school.

2009
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Partnerships/
Collaborations


In September 2009, JO’S partnered with Next Door Foundation to add 3-year-old Head-Start classrooms and two Early Head Start classrooms for 1 and 2-year-old children. This partnership with Next Door, to provide Head Start at the 4801 West North Avenue site, continued through June 2013.  Also, JO’S became a collaborative partner with Social Development Commission (SDC) to provide Head Start at North Avenue site from 2011 through 2013. SDC, today, now provides nutritional meals for both our North and Greenfield location. 

In 2013, JO’S partnered with Acelero Learning to provide Head Start services for eligible children and families at the North Avenue site. The partnership ensured continuity of head start services for children and families.

To strengthen the quality of teaching and enhance professional development, JO’S formed collaboration with Cardinal Stritch University to serve as a placement site for early childhood education students.  This has been a ten-year collaboration that has helped JO’S improve quality of teaching and enhanced teacher’s knowledge of best practices.

JO’S Learning academy also has collaborations with MATC for students in the early education field to conduct their practicums. The National Accreditation Council