Meet the Staff

Katherine Murphy - Executive Director, Math Teacher

Katherine Murphy was born and raised in Oxford, Mississippi. During college, Katherine was a classroom assistant at a small, independent school where she began teaching full-time after graduating from The University of Mississippi in 1996. After teaching a few years, she decided to relocate to Asheville. After spending two years working on her graduate degree at Western Carolina University, Katherine found The Learning Community School through an ad in a local newspaper. She fell in love with the school and began as the 3/4 classroom teacher in the fall of 2000. She became the Lead Teacher in the spring of 2001 and the Director in the summer of 2005.

Ms. Katherine’s classroom is a multi-sensory, hands-on educational experience for all students. Math is taught through the use of manipulatives, games, and movement lessons. Katherine helps her students to create a rich, inquiry-based classroom, allowing each student to become fully engaged and enthusiastic about learning.

Katherine adopted two children from Russia in the spring of 2004 and they are the light of her life. Her time at home is spent with Nick and Sophia Dasha, reading books, swimming, playing soccer, sculpting figures out of play dough, and taking in the sights and sounds of Asheville. They all enjoy vacationing at the beach and spending holidays with family back in Mississippi.

Holly Baumgartner - Director of Administration

Holly Baumgartner was born and raised in the farmlands of northeastern Indiana. She spent much time on her grandparents' seventh generation family farm where she developed a deep love for the environment and the outdoors. She left home to attend Indiana University and then headed out to see the country and the Grateful Dead. She returned to her family farmland in 1993 with husband, Shawn, and daughter, Sequoia Rose. While back in Indiana, she apprenticed concurrently with three different midwifery practices. Deciding to put midwifery on hold until her family was older, she and her family moved to Earthaven Ecovillage (www.earthaven.org) in 1998 where their son, Eli, was born. There they built an off-grid, passive solar home with sustainably harvested wood (cut and milled by Shawn), rainwater collection for all water needs, and a composting toilet. They moved to the campus of Warren Wilson College, where Shawn is the Forest Manager, in June of 2008, and have enjoyed participating in the many on-campus activities.

Holly's family became a part of the TLC community when her daughter entered 1st grade in the fall of 1999. Now her daughter has graduated TLC and is a sophomore at Owen High School, and her son is entering 7th grade at TLC. Holly became an employee of the school in the fall of 2004, and has been keeping the TLC office running smoothly ever since. She communicates with families each and every day to ensure that everyone has what they need, when they need it!

In her spare time, Holly enjoys contra dancing, Appalachian music and dance, working in her family's garden, making fermented foods, learning to play claw hammer-style banjo, and supporting local farmers and businesses.

Mitzi Prendergast - K/1 Lead Teacher

Born and raised with her feet in the sand of the southeast barrier islands, our K/1 teacher, Ms. Mitzi, was tempted to remain a beach bum for life. Realizing her love for working with and teaching young children, she pursued a college education with a degree in earlychildhood education as her goal. While attending Berry College and having many opportunities to teach and interact in a nearby
kindergarten classrooms, Mitzi began to envision and dream of teaching the youngest of children in a non-traditional setting. She understood that children are individuals who develop at their own pace and deserve the opportunity to do just that without a lot of pressure. It appeared to Mitzi that a love for learning and a natural curiosity were two key ingredients that seemed to quickly be lost as many children settled into school routines.

After having four children of her own and moving up and down the eastern seaboard, the Prendergast family finally found a comfortable spot right here in Black Mountain, NC. Shortly after this last move, the search began for the perfect school environment for her youngest child. This brought her to The Learning Community School. Mitzi quickly became part of the community and shortly thereafter, started teaching in the K/1 classroom. The years have passed quickly, the kids are in college, out of college, married... and this year Mitzi will begin her 10th year at The Learning Community School. Over these years she has participated in many, many professional development classes and workshops that have encompassed Writer’s and Reader’s Workshop, specific phonics and reading programs, science workshops, and as of this summer she completed her associates training in the multi-sensory based Orton-Gillingham language education program. Mitzi is excited to have so many new (and fun) strategies for teaching the youngest children to read. (The best job in the world!)

Mitzi feels very fortunate to have found the school she had only imagined for herself, and the wonderful community which helps to
balance out her life. She brings some acquired wisdom, plenty of common sense along with her own degree of nonsense, and lots of love for all of the children in her life.

Julie Carlinnia - 2/4 Lead Teacher, K/8 Social Studies Coordinator

Julie was born in D.C. to a couple of former teachers from Buffalo, NY. She spent her early years playing with her brothers in the woods and creeks of Western Massachusetts. Her family relocated to the suburbs of Charlotte for the rest of her school years. At UNC Chapel Hill, Julie started out studying education and history but caught the academia bug and ended up graduating in 1993 with honors in English and Religious Studies. She met her husband Brian her freshman year. She began teaching in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools after graduating. After trying out law school and taking classes in preparation to be a pediatric nurse practitioner, Julie realized she just wasn’t happy unless she was working with children in a learning environment. She began teaching again at a private school in Chapel Hill and taking education and child development classes. After marrying Brian in 1997, the pair was off to experience city life in New Haven, CT for Brian’s graduate training. While there, Julie taught at a small, progressive independent school in neighboring Branford and yearned for a return to the lush green surroundings and friendliness of the south.The growing family got their wish in September of 1999, when they settled in Asheville and their first daughter Mira was born a month later. Red-headed Ella came onto the scene three years later. Julie relished her years staying home with her girls but stayed plugged in by teaching Sunday school, homeschool co-op classes, and later volunteering and subbing in her daughters’ schools.

In 2007, she went in search of a school for her eldest that was more aligned with her own knowledge and beliefs about education. She found it at TLC! Mira started third grade at TLC that fall, while her little one continued in preschool at Asheville Montessori School, where Julie was teaching. That spring, Julie was hired to take over the 2/3 classroom at TLC the following August. She spent the past summer training in Orton-Gillingham multisensory language education and she has been able to make great use of her skills in the classroom and working on-on-one with students. At TLC, she adores her class and loves sharing her love of history and literature with them. In her limited free time, she loves spending time with her family and friends, cooking, playing board games, spoiling her pets, reading, enjoying music and Tarheel Basketball.

Jesse Wharton - 5/6 Language Arts, Outdoor Education Coordinator

Jesse grew up just down the mountain in the little town of Tryon. Her summers at camp and weekends hiking with her family began her love of the outdoors. In high school, she sought new challenges and attended the NC School of Science and Math in Durham. She went on to UNC Chapel Hill to major in English and Women’s Studies knowing that she wanted to teach English.

She left academia to work for an outdoor adventure company in the DC area. Then she returned to Chapel Hill and finished her degree while working for the university’s outdoor education and leadership programs. She also spent a summer studying Shakespeare at Oxford and traveling around Europe. After graduating, she lead adventure trips out west and explored New Zealand for a few months before landing a job at the Orme School in Arizona. During her two years there, she ran the outdoor program and taught English for the first time.

In 2007, Jesse moved to Asheville to be closer to family, friends, and the Appalachians. She began the MAT program at Western Carolina that summer. But one month before leaving AZ, she had met Trevor. So instead of getting a teaching job in the fall, she turned back west and traveled around the country with him. Their trip ended in Asheville and Trevor loved it. He moved here too and they were married last year.

This will be Jesse’s first year at TLC and she is excited to be teaching at a school that matches her educational philosophy. The past two years she taught Language Arts at a traditional, public middle school. She loved her students and teaching, but craved a nontraditional learning environment that meets kids’ individual needs. Plus, she is thrilled to teach outdoor education again!

Outside of TLC, Jesse is finishing her MAT, dancing, cooking, and gardening. She and Trevor bought a little log cabin in the woods and are doing a sustainable remodel. They have four pygmy goats. Her goals are to be outside, travel, and spend time with people she loves.

Tom Tracy - 7/8 Language Arts, Musical Director

Tom Tracy has been hanging around TLC for over ten years. Born and raised in Alabama, this has nothing to do with his education except it makes for great stories about his summers living with his Aunt Snookie in the big ‘ol white house on Forest Hill Road. He pulls these stories out all the time in Writer’s Workshop. He never tires of telling them.

Tom received his Bachelor’s of Elementary Education at the University of Georgia where he focused on Children's Literature. He taught three years of elementary school in the south before moving with his wife, Libba, to Arizona. There he took an assistantship at Arizona State University to study in both the Elementary Education Department as well as in the Children's Theatre Department. He received his Master’s in Early Childhood Education. Once out of school in Arizona , Tom pursued music as a career but ultimately returned to the classroom. (He is now a member of the Dead Poets, which you can check out online at www.thedeadpoets.com.) He taught for six years in an inner city, award-winning school where he first discovered the great minds who were working and developing what we all know now as Writer’s and Reader’s Workshops.

Tom and his wife Libba brought their son, Guy, to TLC in his third grade year, just before the turn of the millennium. Savannah followed soon after. Tom helped bring the Writer’s and Reader’s programs to TLC through staff training and mentoring. Somewhere in this process, he got roped into (whoops), got the opportunity to direct his first musical, The Music Man, and from there continued on to direct both Oliver!and The Wizard of Oz at TLC.

Tom loves to create an environment where young people can express and explore themselves through their own writing and by delving deep into literature. He works hard to create a safe and rigorous community of writers and calls on each writer to write what has meaning to them.

To Tom, family is his main passion. Married for twenty-eight years to his most excellent partner, he is watching his own children blossom as Guy prepares for college and Savannah begins high school.

Carol Van Putten Vink - Operations Administrator, 7/8 Math and 5/8 Science

Carol was born in Louisville, KY and lived there happily amidst a large extended family. Her father’s job necessitated a family move to Northeastern NJ as she was entering sixth grade, so she completed all of her schooling in the New York City metropolitan area, where she earned an Associate in Applied Science in Chemical Technology from Bergen Community College, a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Ramapo College of NJ, a Master of Business Administration in Corporate Finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University, and a Master of Science in Teaching, Secondary Level Mathematics from Iona College.

During this time she also got married and began a family. She has two beautiful daughters, Sarah and Jessica, with her husband Lenny. She worked for almost 15 years at the corporate headquarters for Volvo in various capacities before pursuing a career in education. As the pace of life picked up and work began to overtake quality family time, her family decided to search for a new area to relocate. After much research and many trips, they all decided upon the Asheville area, so they moved here in 2005. Carol’s family, her sister’s family, and her mother all moved to separate households in Leicester and began a new, slower-paced quality life.

Today she enjoys spending time with her family and friends, reading, playing classical piano, doing endless crafting and sewing projects with her kids and their friends, playing games and chauffeuring around her two teenage daughters!

Carol is beginning her third year at TLC this year where she is adding an administrator role to her teaching duties. She loves showing students that math and science can be fun by using various techniques while always setting the goals as high as possible. There's always lots of laughter and learning in the classroom when Carol is in charge!

Clare DuPlace - K/1 Assistant Teacher, K/8 Organic Gardening Coordinator, Waldorf Crafts Instructor

Clare Duplace was born and raised all over Cincinnati, Ohio. From the very start, she has held a love for learning, nature, books, poetry, art, and music. She attended Montessori schools from elementary through high school, attending the first Montessori public high school in the country. There she was a part of the school’s steel drum band; she has played other instruments including the flute, guitar, and fiddle. Her travels during and outside of school have taken her many places, including Europe, Vermont, Bahamas, Mexico, and the majority of the states. She loves to go to new places and meet new people. She enjoys writing and typing on her typewriter, making giant meals for people, listening to records, reading, swimming, being in the woods, beekeeping, making forts, and on and on.

After graduating from Warren Wilson with a B.A. and Liscensure in Elementary Education, she went on a three month romp through Europe, and then followed an old love for the land and moved to Vermont. While living there, she taught at a Waldorf School, was a children's librarian, and created yet another close-knit community for herself.

After a couple years there, she missed the Blue Ridge mountains so much that she decided to head back to this area. She attended an herbalist school while holding three jobs. After her school experience was complete, she realized that she was missing one of the essential aspects in her life: children. Thanks to a tip from a friend, she found out about an opening at The Learning Community School and she quickly came in for an interview. The minute she walked in the front door, she knew that this was a place she wanted to be. Since that moment, it has been nothing short of incredible and the most natural next step in her journey. Her dream is to have an Earth-based community school, be a healer, have babies, and live out her days on a farm by the sea.

Hui Te "Brian" Lee - 2/8 Math Specialist, Chinese

Hui Te “Brian” Lee was born in Taipei, Taiwan. He moved to Hendersonville, North Carolina in 1989, when the United State Naval Hospital sponsored his father’s immigration. Mr. Lee served as a sergeant in the Taiwanese Army and worked as a sales representative for Giant Company (Komat’su agent) in Taipei. He received an Electronic Associate degree from St. John and St. Mary Junior College in Taipei, and an Associate in Arts-College Transfer degree from Blue Ridge Community College in Hendersonville, North Carolina. At the University of North Carolina at Asheville, he obtained a computer science degree with a concentration in computer systems and a minor in mathematics.

His love for tutoring math has driven him to Blue Ridge Community College, Christ School ’s evening tutoring program, and the AVID program at Asheville Middle School. At UNCA, he worked in the math lab and as a computer lab assistant manager.

Mr. Lee likes sharing his oriental background with his friends and students in western North Carolina, and he used his Taiwanese and Mandarin skills as an interpreter for Buncombe County Department of Social Services and Volvo. Mr Lee joined TLC in the fall of 2007.

In his spare time, Mr. Lee likes solving math, physics, language, and computer problems, reading, listening to soft music, watching baseball, basketball and volleyball, traveling, photography, cooking, and watching movies. He is looking forward to advancing the school’s math and Chinese language programs.

Theresa Cote - Arts Integration Coordinator and 5/8 Assistant Teacher

Theresa Cote has been a member of the TLC community since 2000 when her son, Max, entered Kindergarten. She volunteered with and then headed up the art program for many years before becoming a school employee. She also started TLC’s after-school art club. Last year, she began integrating art with the rest of the curriculum, which has been a major success. She continues to look for ways to add more art opportunities into TLC’s daily routine. Additionally, Ms. Theresa has designed, produced, and coordinated the costumes for the last six all-school musicals. You can check out some of her amazing handiwork on the “school musical” link.

In her spare time, Theresa enjoys working own art projects, with a current focus on surface design. She lives in Swannanoa with her kitten, Marlow, her chinchilla, Bun Bun, and her son, Max.

Aline Carillon, K/8 Music Teacher

Aline Carillon began singing before she could speak. As a child she could be found in the mountains of New York State dancing and singing to anyone and anything that would listen! As a student, she studied flute and voice from a very young age. Participation in school, church choirs and bands were formative components of Aline’s youth.

Realizing that music would be a life-long passion, Ms. Carillon earned a Bachelor of Music from Ithaca College and taught elementary school music in upstate New York for several years. A yearning for warmer weather and new horizons led Aline south, where she and her family eventually landed in western North Carolina. Her son Jeffrey brought her to TLC. While operating a Bed and Breakfast in the Black Mountain area, Aline began teaching music as a parent volunteer; then spent the next ten years building the program TLC has today from the ground up. She utilizes singing, rhythm chants and games, movement, rhythmic and melodic instruments, composition, performance and musical theater in her music instruction. As a choral director, Ms. Carillon utilizes the vast array of choral literature written for young singers. She often arranges larger choral works to accommodate the vocal ranges and capabilities of her various choral groups.

When not at TLC, Ms Carillon pursues her passion for music education as the director of the Black Mountain Youth Chorale, which she founded in the fall of 2007. In addition, she remains active in the professional and community music world in our area. Aline is a dedicated member of the Asheville Choral Society and the All Souls Cathedral Choir.

David Martin - Tai Chi, Outdoor Education

David moved to Asheville from Winston-Salem in order to be closer to the mountains. He graduated from UNCA with a degree in psychology and an interest in teaching. Over the years David has worked as an office assistant, a raft guide, a special needs counselor, a mentor, a carpenter, and a musician. He also enjoys backpacking, cycling, kayaking, gardening, tai chi, and spending time with his wife Valerie. David appreciates having the opportunity to share his skills and interests, and is excited about being part of such a great community.

Lois Anixter - K/4 Science, K/1 Art, Outdoor Education

Lois Anixter grew up in Washington, DC, where she was an emergency room technician for many years. Her family moved to Asheville, where she has raised her three daughters, the youngest of whom is a TLC student.

Lois' classroom is filled with wonder, as her K-4th grade students are encouraged to think like scientists by asking all sorts of questions about their units of study. Lois also leads the K/1 students in art and drawing lessons. What else does she do around the school? Well, she's a perpetual motion machine... she organizes the recycling, implemented and maintains our Monarch waystation, and it's true that many of her peers call her the The Lunch Bunch Queen.

Grady Stickels - Spanish, Physical Education, Language Arts Assistant

Grady is the first TLC graduate to return to work at the school. He is also the oldest of four kids to attend, and once his brother Gabe is finished, graduate from the school. He attended TLC from it's debut, his 5th grade year, until he graduated in 2000. After high school Grady attended Appalachian State University, and in 2009 received his degree in Spanish and Teaching English as a Second Language. He further studied Spanish while spending a year abroad in southern Spain. During his final semester of school Grady learned that TLC was interested in bringing him back as a teacher, so that fall he jumped at the opportunity. Grady is ecstatic to have this chance to teach two of his passions this year, language and sports. Grady also became a father in September 2009 and is absorbing and learning all he can from the fantastic staff and community parents.