Aurora School Grows Early Education Programs in Collaboration with Mills College Children’s School

by Amina Tongun, Junior at Oakland Tech

Aurora school is preparing to expand their educational offerings through a new collaboration with Mills College Children’s School (MCCS), which is set to close in June 2026 after Northeastern University’s merger with Mills College.

Approximately 20 MCCS families are expected to transfer to Aurora and the school committed to hiring at least two MCCS educators, with plans to hire more depending on enrollment.

The collaboration will include the addition of a full-day transitional kindergarten and preschool program over the course of three years, and will serve as a mix between MCCS and Aurora’s curriculum. Aurora leaders emphasized that the arrangement is not a merger, but rather a community collaboration, focusing on growth rather than consolidation.

“Ultimately our early childhood program would be modeled on the same ethos that we built our K-8 program,” said head of school Lynsey Kamine. 

Kamine described MCCS’s closure as a huge loss for the community—MCCS has been serving Oakland for nearly 100 years— and said the collaboration was formed in response to that transition. Kamine said that Aurora hopes to prioritize hiring of MCCS staff during the process to help maintain continuity for students.

School leaders say the collaboration aims to preserve the legacy of MCCS while expanding early childhood education options in the Rockridge area. 

Kamine said, “The goal is to make an educational community that kids and families deserve.”