Early Childhood Educator In Palo Alto Wins Tall Tree Award

News from the Palo Alto Unified School District:

Sharon Keplinger, PreK Principal for the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) was awarded the Chamber of Commerce’s Tall Tree Award for “Outstanding Professional.”

Sharon leads the PreSchool Family program and has beeninstrumental in the growth of the district’s early childhood offerings. She expanded Greendell’s offerings to include anadditional class of the Young Fives Program, Springboard to Kindergarten, Transitional Kindergarten and the inclusion onsite of all preschool special education programs. After 20 years in leadership, Sharon will be retiring from PAUSD at the endof this school year.

The PreSchool Family (PSF) program began in 1946 and is part of the Palo Alto Adult School. Under Sharon’s direction, twonew endeavors were started this school year. An early Childhood Development class at Palo Alto High School now includes anopportunity for students to come to PSF to do their practicum work. With one lecture class period a week at Paly and then two PSF visits a week, students gain practical experience working with infant, toddler, and preschool children.

Students learn basicprinciples of child growth and development, participate in the implementation of early childhood curriculum, and plan andimplement their own developmentally appropriate curriculum. Upon completion of the course, high school students are able touse their knowledge of differences in development and approaches to learning, and provide opportunities that support youngchildren’s physical, social, emotional, language, and cognitive development. A second new program is a PSF dinner class thatwas introduced for working families. Working parents are now able to benefit and learn from parenting discussions and playamong staff, parents and their preschool children.

Parent education offered by the Palo Alto Adult School continues beyond early education. Other parenting course offeringsinclude ESL for parents, Dreamcatchers tutoring offered in partnership with Stanford students and the Parent Project. PaloAlto Adult School Principal Katya Villalobos states, “The Adult School is a great resource for our entire community and welive by our motto— Education is for life.”

For additional information on Palo Alto Adult School, contact Principal Katya Villalobos at 650-329-3752 or by email atkvillalobos@pausd.org.