Old Firehouse School

Old Firehouse School offers special tutoring in academics along with sports, friendship making skills, and self expression through art, music, and drama. The program includes a school-age option that focuses on emotional, physical, and academic skills for individual children. Its approach is based on scientific theory, research, and professional practice in the field of child development, with specific focuses for infants, toddlers, two-year-olds, three-year-olds, and four-year-olds.

• Ages: 0–5 years old
• Schedule: Full day, year-round programs

Old Firehouse School was founded in 1996 in Lafayette by Dr. Dorothy Stewart and her husband Bob Buhl as a private preschool. The schools are designed specifically for children up to 5 years old, with an environment and setting that supports the growth of children at this age. The directors are described as highly skilled professionals who understand child development and respect children as individuals. Teachers in the infant toddler program focus on establishing stable and intrinsically rewarding relationships with each baby, while trust, autonomy, and verbal skills are core values in the toddler and two-year-old program. For three- and four-year-olds, the program emphasizes initiative, language and thinking skills, and activities that encourage the development of rich imaginations, and the preschool acknowledges that these attributes predict much about future academic and social development. The school states that young children are not developmentally ready to handle fierce competitiveness and commits to many non-competitive opportunities for self expression through art, music, and drama. The mission of Old Firehouse School is to give each child a childhood rich in experiences and relationships that optimally prepare them for their life’s journey, based on the belief that the quality of one’s childhood predicts much about the quality of one’s future.

Old Firehouse School has been selected as a Top Winner of Parents Press Reader's Choice for 2017 for Contra Costa County for Best Large Preschool, and has been recognized as a Parents’ Press Best of 2020 Top 10, 2021 Top 10, 2023 Top 5, and 2024 Top 10. For families at the San Rafael 5th Ave. campus, the program partners with Marinlinks to offer subsidized care to low-income families.

Last updated July 19, 2026.