Fabienne Deaton is a Hill resident who, along with her husband Antonio, is getting ready to open the doors on a new Montessori pre-school called Starling Montessori, which will be operating out of Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church. I recently chatted with her and asked her a few questions about herself and her new business. Fabienne’s answers have been lightly edited for clarity.
1. How long have you been on the Hill and how did you make the Hill home?
We moved to the Hill in 2021 after purchasing our first home, so we will have been here three full years in August, 2024. Previously, we lived in the Shaw neighborhood. We moved to DC mid-pandemic! We were looking for our home and had explored so many different neighborhoods in DC. We were very excited when we found a home on Capitol Hill that matched our needs, as we recognized this area was a great place to start our family and live.
2. Why did you feel the Hill needed Starling Montessori? How is it different from other local pre-schools?
Starling Montessori started as a way to address my own family’s need to answer the child care conundrum. As a Montessori educator, when I thought about going back to work after my child was born, I wanted to find a way to return to my career without sacrificing my desire to be a close part of my child’s education. Additionally, when we had our son, it became clear that waiting lists for child care programs & Montessori infant and toddler programs were long, and often families signed up before their children were born. We wanted to build something to support other families like ours, looking for care and thoughtful education for their young children.
Our program is unique as it is truly a family-oriented program. Every member of my family has worked to support this budding small business, and it is really a true representation of my love and hopes for my own children and of my passion and joy for educating! Because of our small and tailored experience, we hope to be able to be like an extended family for our children, offering a warm and thoughtful space where families feel confident that their children feel loved, supported, and cared for. Moreover, we want to work with families to be able to offer them parent education and a parent community.
3. What made you start a business on the Hill as opposed to other communities?
We got extremely lucky in finding a location that was on the Hill when planning to start our own school. DC regulations are strict when considering a physical space’s usability for the purposes of childcare & especially so for children under 30 months! So to find a space that fit the guidelines, AND that was in the heart of Capitol Hill felt like such serendipity. As my husband would say, the universe gave us what we dreamed of when we needed it most! With that, building a school that was in our home neighborhood also gave us the feeling that we could directly support other families in our community, truly giving it the “family-run, family driven” feeling we craved.
4. What do you love about the Hill?
I particularly love how walkable and family friendly this neighborhood is. We often make new Hill friends while taking our evening family walks and when visiting the parks. Everyone is so warm, friendly, and welcoming! I cannot even count the number of new neighbors and friends we have met/made just by stopping to chat while out and about in the area. Secondly, there are also so many fun things happening on the hill for families, such as Hill Family Biking events, Kidsinger Jim’s Music, The Capitol Hill Classic, or Hill-o-ween. We have really enjoyed participating in a variety of family activities on the Hill! We feel that we are part of a vibrant and dynamic community and we are excited to contribute in our own way, through offering our services to the Hill as well! As a small business, I think we are excited to join and participate in other Hill events! We want to be an integral part of this community, both as a way to support our school families and to contribute to Capitol Hill.
5. Have you already had an “only in DC/only on the Hill” moment?
I’ve thought long and hard about this question, and I am not sure I have a good moment yet. The closest I came to being able to define an “On the Hill moment” was maybe seeing (Transportation Secretary) Pete Buttigieg out walking with his family near Lincoln Park, thinking I recognized him as someone I had casually met at a park or in the neighborhood before, and only realized who he was later when I saw a news article and then it clicked!