A Free Public Elementary School in Durham, NC

About Our Teachers

KINDERGARTEN

Scott Larson

Tammy Macomson

When Tammy came to Central Park School in our first year, she had twenty years of teaching experience at the preschool, kindergarten, and college levels. She holds an undergraduate degree in Early Childhood Education and a Masters in Early Childhood Curriculum and Instruction from UNC-Chapel Hill. Tammy is the mother of twin daughters, Ashley and Claire, who are freshmen in college, and of Drew, who is a sixth-grader.

JoAnna Langston

JoAnna has taught kindergarten in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system and kindergarten and 1st grade at Central Park School for Children. She is a graduate of Elon University with a major in Elementary Education and a minor in Spanish. JoAnna is also certified to teach dual language classes and includes a lot of Spanish in her classroom activities.

JoAnna enjoys keeping her ducks in a row and believes that every child's mind is a fire that needs to be kindled!

FIRST GRADE

Dorothy Atkins

Dorothy has taught kindergarten in Durham Public Schools, worked as a teacher assistant, and as a Title I Math Coordinator. She is almost finished with her Master's Degree from North Carolina Central University. She loves working with art especially pottery and clay figures. She is glad to have the opportunity to work on the project based method with children. Dorothy is always open to new ideas and welcomes suggestions from parents. She loves, loves, loves to teach!

Vonda Frantz

Vonda has been with Central Park School for Children from our beginning in July 2003. She has taught preschool, middle school and high school, she started a small school, and taught in a one-room school many years ago! Vonda feels that teaching preschool was the most fun job she ever had, and starting the school was the thing in life she loved doing the most. Vonda has master's degrees in Elementary Education and Botany. She has three sons and four grandchildren, loves to garden and read and is a "decent carpenter."

Aileen Clougherty

Aileen came to Central Park School with over 25 years of teaching experience. Before CPSC, she taught in a K-2 class in Chapel Hill Schools and, prior to that, she spent 13 years at the Carolina Friends School which both her children attended through graduation. At the Carolina Friends School she spent 2 years in a preschool setting, 8 in a 1-2 combination class and 3 in the middle school. Aileen holds a Masters in Education.

Besides teaching Aileen has a passion for art, hiking, and trying to become a successful gardener.

SECOND GRADE

Amy Freeman-Daniels

Amy came to Central Park School for Children in 2005 as the parent of a third grader but ended up taking over an interim second grade position. She now teaches second grade and her son, Aaron, will continue at the school in the fifth grade. Her daughter, Christina, is an eighth grader at Durham School of the Arts. Prior to having children Amy taught for ten years in Virginia, Person County, and Durham County. She then stopped classroom teaching for the next eleven years to raise her children. During that time she also worked with preschooler, was the tutoring coordinator at the Little River Resource Center, home schooled her children, and taught numerous home school classes. She received her teaching degree from UNC-CH. Most of Amy's free time is spent on activities with her children but she has been known to enjoy reading, sewing, and traveling.

Julie Janes

Julie came to CPSC in 2004 from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system as a 1st grade teacher. She has taught kindergarten, first/second multi-age classes, as well as having been a graduate teaching assistant. She is a graduate of East Carolina University and holds a Masters of Arts in Elementary Education. She brings a contagious energy and enough supplies for twelve classrooms.

J. Leslie Moyer

Leslie is originally from California where she earned her Master's Degree in Elementary Education. She also has a bachelor's Degree in Graphic Design. After working many years as a graphic designer Leslie decided to make a career change and become a teacher. She loves teaching and learning from children. Leslie has taught intersession classes, first, second and third grade. Before coming to Central Park School for Children, she taught for Durham Public Schools. One day Leslie drove by Central Park School, saw the painted wooden flowers in the front of the school and thought to herself "there's something special going on in there!" Leslie has been here teaching children in a caring and supportive environment since 2006. Leslie enjoys gardening, quilting and crafts.

THIRD GRADE

Beverly Beckwith

Beverly has taught third, fifth, and sixth grades for six years in Robeson, Orange, and Granville counties. She worked as an administrator for one year in Durham Public Schools. Beverly holds an undergraduate degree in Elementary Education from East Carolina University, and a master's degree in Education Administration and Supervision from North Carolina State University. Her hobbies are reading, taking long walks, and spending time with her son and husband.

Chanel Carrell

Chanel is the mother of 3 children currently attending Central Park School for Children. She has a degree in Education and has been teaching in Durham Public Schools.

Sarah Graham

Sarah came to us from the Emerson Waldorf School in Chapel Hill. Prior to her working there, she lived in Oregon teaching college environmental science courses and spending summers as a Grand Canyon Park ranger. She completed undergraduate studies at Wake Forest University, and graduate studies in Waldorf education outside London, England. Sarah believes that the hearts, the heads and the hands of children should receive equal attention from education.

Susan Thompson

Susan is joining us from the Durham Public Schools. She taught 3rd grade for four years and has been a teachers assistant and pre-school kindergarten teacher. Susan holds a BA from York College (CUNY), New York. Susan is looking forward to a work environment centered around teaching children and creating her classroom to address student needs.

FOURTH GRADE

Brent Curtis

Brent was born and raised in Kansas. He has a BS degree in Political Science and History from Baker University in Kansas, and received an MS in Elementary Education from Nazareth College in Rochester, NY. Brent taught with Durham Public Schools for 5 years, doing 4th and 5th grades, as well as AIG last year. His wife Lesley works at the Duke Clinical Research Institute and is also an outstanding soprano. She sang at Spoleto in Charleston this summer. They have two children: daughter Sydney who is 8 and son Graham who is 4.

Brent is an avid road cyclist and he and Lesley will take a weeklong cycling trip to Provence this summer. They get to ride up Mt. Ventoux, an infamous mountain in European bike racing circles. Brent is also a Spinning instructor at two local health clubs. He enjoys building furniture and is also building a wooden sea kayak. He is also a musician as a singer, piano and brass player.

Cheryle Pope

Cheryle has come to us from Duke School for Children, where she was a long-time teacher, and most recently a Curriculum and Staff Development Director. She has over twenty years of experience teaching grades pre K - 8th, educational consulting with schools across NC, private tutoring, and staff development with teachers and undergraduates at UNC. Cheryl has a Master's of Education degree from UNC at Chapel Hill. She thoroughly enjoys project-based teaching and experiential learning techniques, and is very excited about bringing these approaches to a public school setting.

Pam Taren

Years of living abroad and her years of experience teaching in private and public elementary schools will lend a "well-seasoned" and multicultural "flavor" to Pam's classroom at Central Park School. Trained in the integrated project approach, Pam enjoys incorporating her children's interests in her planning and looks forward to a partnership in learning with parents and the local community. "Tapping the expertise of the community makes learning real in the classroom." Pam strongly believes that in her classroom everyone is a teacher and a student.

Pam holds a Masters Degree and a 6th Year Degree in education from The University of the Americas, Mexico, University of Delhi, India and The University of Bridgeport, Connecticut.

FIFTH GRADE

Belle Boggs

Belle Boggs is a writer and teacher from Virginia. A former New York City Teaching Fellow, Belle has taught in public schools in Santa Ana, California and Brooklyn, New York. While working with the University of California at Irvine's Humanities Outreach Program, she developed a writing and arts curriculum that was published, along with student work, in the print journal "Jupiter Launches" and the online journal "Humanifest." She is enthusiastic about reading and writing workshops and looks forward to developing cross-curricular projects with her students. Belle has master's degrees in English from the University of California at Irvine and in Elementary Teaching from Pace University in New York.

Meg Millard

Meg grew up in Chapel Hill, but has traveled and studied throughout the U.S. She has a B.A. in Environmental Studies from The Evergreen State College (in Olympia, WA). Teacher certification coursework was completed at UNC-Chapel Hill. She also has Environmental Educator certification. Fourth and Fifth graders have been her focus for the past 18 years. She has taught at the Duke School for Children, Frank Porter Graham Elementary School (in Chapel Hill), and substituted in both Alamance and Orange counties. She has also taught summer programs for teachers, mostly through the UNC Center for Math and Science and the Thomas Day Education Project (in Durham). Currently she is working towards a MEd in K-8 Mathematics from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Her hobbies include: reading, gardening, hanging out with her chickens and dogs, ham radio, building bottlewalls, and almost anything else that might catch her interest!!

Elizabeth Ricker

Elizabeth received her BA in English and Masters Degree in Education from North Carolina State University where she was Summa Cum Laude in both undergraduate and graduate programs. Besides classroom teaching, she has worked as a computer lab specialist and a counselor.

Elizabeth joins the CPSC staff as a teacher with 12 years experience in the classroom. She was nominated as Charter School Teacher of the Year in 2004 and has been trained in Mel Levine's "Schools Attuned." She has spent the past year at home with her new daughter Isabelle.

STAFF

Kim Crabbe - Media Assistant

Kim joins us from N. Va., where she worked as both a beacher's assistant and a prestigious Soccer Coach within the Private School system. She attended George Mason University on a Full Soccer Scholarship, "beginning" as an Early Childhood Education major and later switching to Social Work. She is no stranger to the soccer arena, having years of Amateur and Professional experience. She starred on the first Women's Olympic Festival East Soccer Team in 1985 held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Many highlights of her career would follow. Playing for GMU Lady Patriots soccer team, she would help them capture the 1985 NCAA National Championship, defeating UNC Tarheels. Kim was then selected to the 1086 United States National Team, where she would tour Europe, competing against some of the best players in the world. Her career continued for many years playing at the extreme, highest of levels of competition in women's soccer. She would now be considered a very well respected "pioneer," that helped lay the path for the WUSA!

Glenda Davis - Speech and Exceptional-Children Coordinator

Glenda works part time as the Coordinator for the Exceptional Children's Program and the Speech Pathologist. She has been a licensed Speech and Language Pathologist for most of her career. She taught seventh and fourth grades while deciding to go to the University of North Carolina to pursue a career as a Speech Therapist. Because of her natural talent in this field, she was certified and hired by the Raleigh City Schools after the first summer of course work. She has been a Speech Therapist for the Alum Rock School District in San Jose California, in the Wake County and Raleigh City Schools and in the Orange County Schools in Hillsborough. She later received a Master's Degree at North Carolina Central University and became licensed by the Board of Directors in Speech and Language Pathology for North Carolina. In addition, she holds five areas of certification, including Mentoring new teachers.

Glenda feels that credentials are important, but compassion for children and a passion for the job you do mean a whole lot more. When not at school, Glenda is deeply involved with community by fundraising for organizations, supporting the preservation of the Eno River and volunteering every year for the Festival on the Eno. She also enjoys traveling in the Caribbean and her two granddaughters.

Charlie Hearon - Arts Resource Teacher

I grew up south of Asheville on the state line. I have a BA from Davidson College in Studio Art. I focused on printmaking while I was there. My love of music caused me to move to Chapel Hill the day after I graduated and I've been in the area for nine years now. I have worked at a charter school and taught in the after school at Seawell Elementary in Chapel Hill but, for the last seven years, I have been Meg Millard's assistant at Frank Porter Graham, also in Chapel Hill. I'm a vegetarian and I love cats and photography. I love dancing, I'm a dj, and have been running an independent record label for a few years. And of course, I really love teaching and hope to be doing it for a long time!

Carolyn Kirkland - Director

Carolyn is a career educator with classroom and administrative experience. She has been a teacher, vice principal, principal and consultant with the North Carolina Public Schools. Carolyn trained as a Comer School Facilitator under Dr. James Comer, Director of the Child Study Center School Development Program at Yale University. The Comer Method is based on a simple principle: Everyone with a stake in a school should have a say in how it is run-including teachers, students, parents, the principal, psychologists, health care workers, community leaders, and cafeteria workers. The Comer Method calls for a strong school governance team, which works collaboratively to formulate a comprehensive plan for operating the school, developing new programs, and monitoring student progress.

Liz Melvin - Arts Resource Teacher

This is Liz Melvin's first year at the Central Park School for Children being the K- 2 Art resources teacher. She spent the 2005-2006 school year at the Duke School for children being the art assistant there and a K-1st lead after school teacher. The project based approach is something she believes in and plans on incorporating that method in her teaching of music and art.

In college, she double majored in Studio Art and Art History with some education courses on the side. Her music experience comes with playing the flute for many years but today she gets down with her stand up bass which she plays in an all-female bluegrass band around the area.

Vicky Patton - Director of Outreach and Development

Vicky has served as an assistant to President Terry Sanford at Duke University and led the effort to relocate the American Dance Festival from Connecticut to Durham. She was a founding Board member, then president of the Duke School for Children. Vicky received her MBA at the Duke Fuqua School and was, more recently, the Executive Director of The Governors Center at the Sanford Institute for Public Policy.

Vicky wrote the CPSC charter application and worked on the CPSC project for two years before the school actually opened. She remains President of the Board of Directors and loves working at the School.

Justin Poindexter - Behavior Specialist

Justin grew up on Long Island and has a B.S. degree in Elementary Education from the State University of N.Y. at Old Westbury. He holds Pre-K-6th grade certification from the State of N.Y. Justin comes to us from public schools in New York and Durham where he taught 3rd grade for 3 years. In his spare time, he enjoys swimming, soccer, and basketball.

Justin believes teachers should be passionate about their work and should engage children in hands-on projects that are generated by the students. Justin has had training in project-based learning and is excited about being part of a school promoting project-based learning.

Justin views each child as an individual with his or her own set of feelings and needs. He believes that teachers need to have autonomy to decide what activities are most appropriate for their students.

Justin feels like this school is a dream come true.

Vicki Reynolds

Tonya Roberts

Tonya comes to us from the Medical Genetics Center in Chapel Hill, known as Genecare. Tonya gained her outstanding training in business procedures and detailed management skills from her 11 years at Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Being a native of Durham and having 3 children of her own, she has a joy for kids. Tonya has volunteered at charter schools for quite some time. She graduated from Hillside High School and went on to further her education at Southeastern Academy in Florida where she graduated with a degree in Administration and a concentration on World Travel.

Tonya decided that after years of balancing corporate America it was time to come home and devote time to her kids. The decision to join Central Park School for Children was when a fellow volunteer stated, "with as much time as you spend at the school and your knowledge of schools and kids, why not do something you enjoy and get paid for it."

Karen Stinehelfer - Business Manager

Karen is an accountant with over 30 years of non-profit experience. She was Duke School for Children's first Business Manager and after 10 years, came to Central Park School for Children to become our first Business Manager. Karen likes doing collages and has done our Annual Picnic photo montages. She usually spends her weekends attending antique auctions or working on her scrapbooks.

Kevin Tolson

Kevin Tolson comes to CPSC after a two-year stint with the Corporation of National and Community Service (Americorps). His first year was served as a full-time "all grades in rotation" instructor teaching an experiential and sustainable living curriculum through a hands-on gardening approach. Kevin served his second year as a full-time tutor/mentor of adult learners, as well as a capacity builder developing county-wide community collaborations via projects and events in support of the Orange County Literacy Council.

Kevin first attended the University of Maryland in College Park as a dance/choreography major, in later years graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from New College of California, and attended the prestigious University of San Francisco, earning a Development Director's Certificate from the Professional Studies department.

Over the years, progressing from administrative support to seminars coordinator in the business sector, Kevin worked as a development associate for one of San Francisco's largest African American subsidized early childhood developmental centers. He was responsible to the director for managing different aspects of the 1.7 million grants/budget awarded by private family foundations and the City/County of San Francisco. He briefly worked as a development associate with Children Now, a nationally renowned children's advocacy group, and held the position as Interim Development Director at Florence Crittenton Services, a 3 million annual budget agency and century old nationally affiliated non-profit serving young women and their children.

Highlights of Kevin's professional career include spearheading an on-going community partnership between the City of Richmond's Small Business Development Center and San Francisco State University's Design and Industry department graduate students, and coordinating the first Women and Minorities in International Trade Conference, sponsored by the Peralta Colleges and the Port of Oakland.

Kevin is married to a HBC professor and has two teenagers, one attending DHS and the other at CFS.

Zakia Van Hoose (Zee) - Teaching Assistant and Physical Education Resource Teacher

Zee has been at CPSC since our first year when she began in January. She has a bachelor's degree in Recreation Administration and a concentration in Therapeutic Recreation from North Carolina Central University. She worked at the Duke School Before coming to CPSC. Zee brings a loving, caring sunshine smile, and energetic spirit to the children of Central Park school.

Caroline Weaver - Student Records/Admissions/IT/Media Person

Caroline has been with Central Park School since the beginning. She has degrees in Film/Photography, International Business, and Archival Administration. Caroline is the mother of Lindley (second grade) and Ian (pre-school). She has many years of experience working with non-profits or in higher education.

Monica White - After School Activities Coordinator

Monica White has been working with children for over 13 years in the Durham Public School system. Out of those 13 years, she has served as an After School Manager for 5 years. She has certifications in the following areas:

• Early Childhood Administration 1 & 2
• Early Childhood Credentials 1 & 2
• CPR/First-Aid
• Bloodborne Pathogen
• Nonviolent Crisis Intervention
• SIDS Certification
• Therapeutic Physical Intervention (PIC)
Kli>Division of Child Development Certification (State Bylaws)

Pat Zuriff - School Counselor

Pat worked for many years as a Mental Health counselor in NYC. She received both her Bachelor's degree and Master's degree in Counseling Education, from Queens College, City University of New York. Pat began working with children in Middle School, where she counseled sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth graders. She is the proud mother of two children, Michael and Stephanie.