Kristi Franko
Director
Lead Teacher – Parent-Tot
Kristi Franko is WPELC’s director and lead Parent-Tot class teacher. She has been teaching for 18 years and has spent the last four years at WPELC. Kristi completed the Stanley British Primary School Teacher Preparation Program in 2002. She has a master’s in educational psychology from CU Denver, with an emphasis on early childhood education.
She had the opportunity to focus on her passion for early childhood education at Paddington Station Preschool, where she worked for 14 years. In addition to teaching two-, three-, and four-year-olds, she coached teachers for PEBC (Public Education & Business Coalition) through the Boettcher Teacher Residency Teacher Preparation Program. She was also the site-coordinator at Paddington Station Preschool, coaching, and supporting the kindergarten and pre-K teachers.
In her free time, Ms. Kristi enjoys cooking, live music, getting to the mountains, researching the ever-changing field of early childhood education, and spending time with her two daughters and husband.
Kara Chitwood
Administrative Assistant / Associate Teacher – Early Learner
Kara Chitwood has been WPELC’s administrative assistant since 2016, helping the director with general school operations, enrollment, and bookkeeping. Additionally, she has been a favorite substitute since 2012 and continues to sub in our Preschool and Early Learner classrooms. This year, she will jump into the classroom consistently as the Early Learner associate teacher on Mondays.
Kara has a degree in physical and health education from UW-Madison. She holds extensive experience working with youth and in health education: teaching high school physical education and health for 5+ years; coaching various sports; peer education and counseling at a summer camp for kids with HIV/AIDS; volunteering as a parent partner in the NICU at Children’s Hospital Colorado; and being an active member of the school PTO when her daughters were in middle school.
Her time at Washington Park Early Learning Center began in 2009 when her oldest daughter attended our school, and it continued when her younger daughter came to WPELC in 2012.
Kara has taught both prenatal and postnatal yoga, and her students have included quite a few WPELC moms! Her interests include going to concerts, practicing yoga, hiking with friends and family, enjoying yummy food and drink with friends, traveling, and attempting to read books for her book club in a timely manner.
Katie Green
Lead Teacher – Early Learner
Katie Green is our lead teacher for the Early Learner class held on Tuesday and Thursday. Katie is a former WPELC parent who began teaching here in 2017. Her teaching career began as an English teacher in Japan. Upon returning from that adventure, she realized she loved working with young children and went on to earn her master’s in early childhood education. Her experience includes teaching at a few local preschools, early childhood education-second grade in DPS, and leading Music Together classes.
Katie’s interests include traveling, reading, solving puzzles and escape rooms, and singing in the Swallow Hill Music Center Choir. She also enjoys spending time with her husband and two teenagers.
Perry McElhinney
Lead Teacher – Early Learner
Perry has spent the last twenty four years teaching and learning from children in the early childhood setting. She gained an incredible amount of educational knowledge teaching ECE at a title one Denver Public School for the past four years. Perry received her bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies, with a minor in Women’s Studies, from Santa Clara University in 1998. In 2000 she was an intern in what was then known as The Stanley British Primary School Teacher Training Program. Perry received her master’s degree in Educational Psychology from The University of Colorado, Denver in 2001.
When Perry is not teaching she enjoys listening to live music, hiking, reading, yoga, playing board games (she is just starting to learn how to play Mahjong), working at Whole Foods, and spending time with her 18 year old twin sons.
Rachel Homlar
Associate Teacher – Early Learner
Since 2014, Rachel has worked with four talented teachers at WPELC in both the Preschool and Early Learner classes. This year she will be the associate teacher in the Early Learner class on Wednesdays and Fridays, as well as the associate teacher in the Tuesday/Thursday Early Learner class.
Rachel’s experience as a preschool teacher has given her an opportunity to work with early learners of all ages, using her creative arts background. She has spent most of her time in the classroom working with children of ages three and four, but she also has experience teaching toddlers from fourteen months of age, up to five-year-old children.
Rachel has her Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts from Xavier University. She is delighted to have the opportunity to work in this incredible parent cooperative!
Kara Burnham
Co-Lead Teacher – Preschool
Kara Burnham is our lead teacher for the Preschool class held on Tuesday and Thursday. Kara received an internship with the Stanley British Primary School (SBPS) Teacher Preparation Program where she earned her teaching certificate and a master’s degree in early childhood education.
She taught at Paddington Station Preschool for 10 years in a play-based setting where she worked with three- and four-year-olds for many years and ran a parent-tot program for two years. Kara also was a mentor for early childhood education interns through the SBPS Teacher Preparation Program and later became an advisor to early childhood education interns going through the program.
In her free time, Kara enjoys spending time with her family, including her seven-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son. She also enjoys hiking, cooking, reading, and traveling. Kara is so excited to be in a play-based setting working with preschool-aged children.
Valerie Stokeld
Co-Lead Teacher – Preschool
Val is the associate teacher in the Tuesday/Thursday Preschool class. She has her master’s in moderate to severe special education from Notre Dame de Namur University and is a doctoral candidate in special education at the University of San Francisco. She is conducting research on the personal autonomy of autistic adults and how societal perception of their needs/desires may differ from their actual needs/desires.
Valerie was a special education teacher for 12 years teaching autistic individuals. She taught in elementary school, middle school, and high school/adult transition (ages 18-22) to better understand the differing needs of her students as they grow into adults.
Currently, Valerie is a stay at home mom to her three children, ages three, five, and seven. She has worked with children for as long as she can remember as a babysitter, camp counselor, and nanny. Her hobbies include reading, hiking, camping, and cycling. She is very excited to be part of the WPELC team.
Tina Mitchell
Lead Teacher – Preschool
Tina Mitchell is our lead teacher for the Early Learner class held on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. She has an associate degree in early childhood education and a bachelor’s from CSU in human development and family studies. She taught preschool for 12 years before moving to a job working with at-risk children.
Both of Tina’s children attended WPELC and she was very active in the school. She was on the board, volunteered numerous hours, and continued to sub after her children graduated. It was during her years here that Tina saw how amazing it was to have such a close-knit school community, and after eight years, both Tina and her children still have friendships that were formed at WPELC!
She loves to go to the mountains with her family to hike, bike, and ski, and she spends a lot of time in the water in the summer. During the school year, she also spends a lot of time driving her highly social 16 and 18 years olds around to various activities.
Ms. Tina is so excited to be at our school to help guide your children through this incredible time in their lives. “You couldn’t have made a better choice for your children! Know that!”
Lara Laws
Associate Teacher – Preschool
Lara Laws started in 2019 at WPELC as an associate teacher and works in the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Preschool class with Ms. Christina.
Her educational career started right after high school, working at an early childhood school on the East Coast for children with special needs. After becoming formally trained as a Montessori teacher/guide, she taught both pre-school and kindergarten for 14 years in the Washington, DC area as well as in Denver. For five years she worked in a Waldorf public school assisting the lead preschool and kindergarten teacher.
Ms. Lara has an undergraduate degree in sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a master’s in early childhood education. She is certified in both infant/toddler and primary Montessori education. Her educational classes include coursework towards early childhood education director qualification, courses in conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, diversity training, mind/body connection, Brain gym, body safe awareness, and other related courses. She also studied Waldorf philosophy through a Foundations Studies course.
Lara has two daughters ages 13 and 16. Their family’s interests include skiing, hiking, camping, traveling, and spending time with friends. When she has spare time, Lara enjoys doing yoga, attending her book club, and hosting gatherings for family and friends.