Kendra serves as the teacher mentor for all newly hired kindergarten teachers for Vancouver Public Schools, preschool teacher at King Elementary, and coordinator for the “Jump Start Kindergarten Program” for all 21 VPS elementary schools. As a member of the district’s Early Learning Task Force, “Kendra’s passion for promoting those efforts,” says Vancouver’s Executive Director of Teaching and Learning, is “exemplary in every way.”
Kendra is determined to provide “high quality learning experiences for our earliest learners.” When her Title I preschool program filled this fall, creating a long waitlist of children who would not have an opportunity for a Pre-K experience, Kendra created an evening preschool program called “King’s Early Explorers.” In order to offer this program, Kendra secured funding to employ support staff and purchase materials and food. With the Director of Family Engagement and Family-Community Resource Centers, Kendra applied for and was awarded a mini-grant from the Association of School Superintendents and National Joint Powers Alliance’s Helping Kids Program. Today, children attend a weekly three-hour preschool program that is “rich in rigor and routine.”
Kendra also publishes a monthly electronic newsletter called Early Learning in Vancouver, which is translated into Spanish and Russian and provides timely information about opportunities to support early child development. The newsletter has become a critical communication tool and has increased participation in parent-child enrichment programs.
Perhaps the most important reason Kendra is worthy of this award, says Tamara Shoup, is that “she is a magical teacher. I cannot think of many occasions in my life that I have been swept away with curiosity. In [Kendra’s] preschool class, I felt like a learner. The children I sat with during circle time were eager to participate, too. Kendra inspires children and adults. She is a rock star educator!”
