Sara Fries

“I love teaching, mostly because I love learning, and as an educator, I have found that the learning never stops. I have had a broad range of teaching experiences thus far, having taught in three distinctly different communities, across grades K-6, and more recently as a preschool teacher. I view children as whole beings, and strive to create a strong sense of community and ownership over the learning process with all my students. I do not believe that any single curriculum or method works for everyone, and so I pull from a variety of resources to meet the needs of each child in my care.

“I grew up in Berkeley attending Berkeley public schools, but later enrolled in Pinel, a small, ungraded Summerhill-inspired alternative school. This experience greatly influenced my beliefs about education, and served as a model for my own school, Wildcat Community FreeSchool, which I co-founded in 2004 and operated for six years.

Sara Fries and family

“I live with my husband, Kent, our son, Miles, and a varied assortment of pets: Woody, our labrador retriever, three cats, and four chickens. In my spare time I like to read, mess about in the garden, and re-upholster old furniture. As a family, we love to ride our bikes, kayak, or go hiking and camping on the coast, in redwood forests, or in Desolation Wilderness.”

Since joining Caspar Creek in 2014, Sara has worked primarily with students in grades three, four and five.

Chelsy Rose Rathblott

Chelsy Rathblott

“I am so blessed to be a part of this community, where my daughters had their start with the wonder of Waldorf ten years ago. With joy and rhythm this play-based and nature oriented curriculum is introduced to our little ones.

“I have had the opportunity to work with the early grades (preschool–grade 3) from San Francisco to Santa Rosa, and our beautiful Caspar, California, in a variety of school settings for over 25 years. Most recently I worked at Three Rivers Charter School with second-eighth grade ESL students. I received my teaching credential from SFSU in 2000 with a focus on cross-cultural studies and dance. Early learning is strongly connected to the child’s own body; and through movement and music knowledge is integrated. If a young child is moving, they are learning!

“In the last two years I have danced and taught creative movement to a wide range of children in our community. With the Mendocino Dance Project, I designed and implemented creative movement activities that incorporated core curriculum while fostering physical and emotional awareness. I believe that if a child is moving, singing, creating and celebrating; if they have reverence and respect for one another and themselves, their lives will be full, and they will live well.”

Chelsy joins Caspar Creek in 2017, heading up the Kindergarten and grade one program.

Sarah Taylor

Sarah Taylor has been working with children in an elementary school setting since 1986. In addition to a multiple subjects teaching credential with an emphasis on early childhood education, her background includes a Bachelor of Arts in outdoor recreation. For the past three years she has been a part of the reading intervention team at Dana Gray Elementary (grades 3-5). Having been employed both as an after school day-care director with Ukiah Unified for three years, and a pre-school teacher for four years, she has an active, hands-on teaching style. This approach is particularly suitable to the Waldorf environment.

Residencies in Morocco and Peru (two years each), as well as two months in Singapore, serve to enhance the scope of Sarah’s teaching methods when working with our diverse population here on the Mendocino coast.

Feeling privileged to be a part of the Caspar Creek Community, Sarah is enthusiastic about incorporating Waldorf methods and philosophy into her teaching. She strives to develop and maintain open communication with parents as it relates to their child and the curriculum. Her primary goal is to foster confidence and imagination in students by recognizing and nurturing their individual strengths and intelligences.

Sarah joins Caspar Creek in 2017, working primarily with students in grades one and two.

Katie Peterson

I feel so very blessed to be a part of the beautiful community of Caspar Creek. I will be working here as coordinator, a roll I see as a support system for the teachers, families and the board, and I will tutor students. I spent the last 15 years teaching kindergarten in San Francisco and working as the school principal for the summer program. Prior to that, I spent 20 plus years working in Special Education. My BA is in Education and MA in Special Education. I am so excited about this new chapter in my life. I loved spending two weeks with our staff at the Waldorf training this summer. My greatest passion in life is spending time with my two boys. I’m also loving learning about and exploring our amazing community. Thank you for including me in this special community.

Katie joined Caspar Creek in 2016 as a Special Education Tutor, and has since taken on the role of Coordinator, supporting teachers’ success in many ways.

Barbara Loomis

“My appreciation for the beauty of how children develop and learn began when I had my own children. Since then I have attended the College of the Redwoods, here on the coast, and received my certificate of completion in Early Childhood Education. I have also taken numerous trainings and workshops about child development, literacy, how the brain works, science for young children, classroom management, and curriculum development. The training closest to my heart is the Rudolf Steiner College Public School Institute I was fortunate to be able to attend in summer 2017 and nine years before that with Anne Blanton.

“I have been a childcare provider in my home, worked with infants and toddlers at the Infant and Childcare Center of the Mendocino Coast. (ICCM was in what is now called the Mendocino Community Center ). I have worked at various preschools on the coast, but I worked the longest at Caspar Children’s Garden. Then I began working at Caspar Creek in 2007 as an aide to Anne Blanton, who was the K-1 teacher for many years. I learned so much from her, and she remains my dear friend.

“I have lived on the coast since 1975. I was born in Guatemala and grew up in San Mateo, California. My husband and I built a home and raised a family here. I have two sons, Jason and Nicholas, and I am proud to say, I am now a grandmother to Walker, a beautiful 8-month old baby boy [as of July, 2017].”

Barbara joined Caspar Creek in 2008 as the aide to Anne Blanton, the founding teacher of our K-1 program, and continues to hold that vision.

Sandra Patterson

“I have worked as a Special Education Tutor at Caspar Creek since January, 2007. Living right in the neighborhood, it’s been nice being associated with the program.

“I’m a mother of two, grandmother of two. I grew up in New Jersey. I graduated from Hiram College (Ohio) with a degree in Art Education. I got a second degree from Kent State (Ohio) in Early Childhood Education.

“I’ve taught nursery school, high school art, worked as a manager of a natural foods co-op (in Claremont, CA) packed seaweed for two different local companies, and worked at Lu’s Kitchen.

“But this job at Caspar Creek is the one I’ve loved best in my whole life.”