Dana Kutch - Preschool
Dana Kutch comes to us with 30 years of preschool teaching experience and feels that this is truly her calling. She absolutely enjoys teaching preschoolers and believes they learn best in a stress-free environment that gives them the opportunity to learn through hands-on activities and play.
Dana and her husband of 25 years, live in Battle Ground with their 7 children. Together they all care for their 2 goats, 6 chickens, and 2 cats.
She is excited to be a part of our community and to work together with caregivers in the classroom.
Janine Carr - Sprouting Seeds
Janine has been an elementary teacher for 37 years and has also worked with teachers on early literacy projects. She is K-8 certified in the State of Washington with a K-12 reading endorsement, has a Master's Degree in Language & Literacy, and is the author of A Child Went Forth: Reflective Teaching with Young Readers and Writers which is an account of her philosophy and practices from her years in public school teaching. Her expertise is in the field of literacy and she enjoys the many ways of helping children become thoughtful and proficient readers and writers.
Her husband Michael is also a teacher, and her grown children, Matthew and Anna were both part of the Sprouting Seeds program throughout their elementary years.
Virginia Triplett - Sprouting Seeds
Virginia Triplett has been a teacher at Columbia Kids and Sprouting Seeds for more than 40 years.
Hundreds of families have benefited from her guidance and support in the challenging, rewarding, but not always intuitive work of raising creative, curious, responsible citizens.
Virgina has three adult children and a dozen or so other “kids” — the goats she raises on her small farm in Hockinson, Washington.
Virginia worked in her position as our beloved Columbia Kids Preschool teacher and Clark College-affiliated parent educator for 40 years. Literally hundreds of families benefited from Virginia’s invaluable guidance and support in the essential work of raising responsible, creative citizens of all ages. In our Sprouting Seeds School world, Virginia continues to lead the sustained project stand throughout each of our studies where she involves our kids in a variety of ongoing unit-related projects that involve thoughtful, creative processes as well as all five senses as they complete their work together. She also facilitates our parent education discussions as we all embrace the thoughtful work of parenting strong, healthy children who are moving forward in our modern, complex world.