About Us: Meet the Staff
The Teachers and Staff That Make The Preschool Place & Kindergarten
The Place for Your Children
We are very proud of our outstanding team of director, teachers, assistants and office staff here at The Preschool Place & Kindergarten. We are pleased to be able to boast that they have over 200 years of combined classroom experience. The majority of our teaching staff have come to us after having had their own children go through our program. As educators and parents they were so impressed with what their children did here that they too wanted to be part of our team. What we do not only includes educating your children, but educating ourselves. Our staff actively keeps up with the latest research in early childhood education, and attends professional development programs, all with the goal of giving your children the quality education they deserve in their early years.
CAROL RUBNITZ
Director, Heritage Street teacher
crubnitz@preschoolplace.com
Appointed: 1990
Education/Experience: MS in Early Childhood Education from Queens College as well as a BS in Elementary Education from Queens College. She is certified in Early Childhood Education as well as Elementary Education. She has been at The Preschool Place since 1990 as a teacher, she became the Assistant Director in 2001 and has been the director since 2005.
Fun Facts:Both of her children attended The Preschool Place and Kindergarten beginning in 1986. She enjoys taking all kinds of exercise classes and traveling. She has also taught ESL to adults at the English Language Institute at Queens College.
MINDY BRAINUM
Kinder Plus teacher, English Language Learning (ELL) teacher for adults mbrainum@preschoolplace.com
Appointed: 1988
Education/Experience: BA in Elementary Education from Brooklyn College. She is certified Pre-K through 8th grade. She co-created the Hand in Hand enrichment as well as the Kinder Plus enrichment at our school.
Fun Facts: Both of her children attended The Preschool Place and Kindergarten beginning in 1991. Mindy enjoys reading, biking, teaching and spending time at the beach, which she calls her “happy place”.
CHRISTINE CLARK
Fours teacher (5 days), Hand in Hand teacher
cclark@preschoolplace.com
Appointed: 1998
Education/Experience: BS in Office Systems Administration from Montclair State College. She has a certificate in Early Childhood Education from Raritan Valley Community College.
Fun Facts: She enjoys spending time with her granddaughter.
JANINE COOK
Threes teacher assistant, Art Unlimited teacher
jcook@preschoolplace.com
Appointed: 2005
Education/Experience: CDA (Child Development Associate) Credential, 2009
Fun Facts: All three of her children attended The Preschool Place and Kindergarten beginning in 1998. When not at preschool she spends her time taking care of her children and volunteering in her children’s activities.
TINA FELDMAN
Discover Ease assistant, Cooking assistant
Appointed: 1994
Education/Experience: BA in Communication Arts with a concentration in Human Behavior from University of Hartford. Her time at the Preschool Place as been as assistant inour enrichment programs including Preschool Plus, What's Cooking, Discover-ease, Story Stretchers, Animal Antics and Planet Earth.
Fun Facts: Her daughter attended the Preschool Place beginning in 1991 and was in the first Discover-ease and Hand N Hand classes. In her spare timeshe enjoys reading, gardening, walking, spending time onthe beach and attending Broadway shows.
CATHY GIALLORENZO
Kindergarten teacher
cgiallorenzo@preschoolplace.com
Appointed: 2000
Education/Experience: BS degree in Speech from Montclair State College and her Masters in Elementary Education and Reading from St. Johns University. She is certified in Early Childhood Education as well as Elementary Education. She taught in our “fours” program before teaching kindergarten and taught for 4 years before joining The Preschool Place in 2000.
Fun Facts: Her son attended The Preschool Place and Kindergarten beginning in 1996.
SHARON JOHNSON
Office Manager
sjohnson@preschoolplace.com
Appointed: 2003
Education/Experience: BS in Elementary Education from The University of Maryland. She is certified in Early Childhood and Elementary Education K-6.
Fun Facts: Her children attended The Preschool Place and Kindergarten beginning in 1998. She spent years as a mortgage banker in NYC. She enjoys reading and cooking in her spare time.
KAREN KALMAN
Fours teacher (3 days)
kkalman@preschoolplace.com
Appointed: 2002
Education/Experience: BS in Elementary Education/Early Childhood from College Misericordia in Dallas, PA with a minor in library science. She has been teaching enrichment classes here since 2002 and has been teaching the fours since 2008.
Fun Facts: Her son attended The Preschool Place and Kindergarten.
AMY KESSLER
Marketing and Programming
akessler@preschoolplace.com
Appointed: 1993
Education/Experience: BA in Early Childhood and Elementary Education. She has been teaching three year olds since 1993. In 2009 she began teaching computers as well as doing administrative work in marketing and programing. She maintains our website as well as our Facebook page.
Fun Facts: All three of her children attended The Preschool Place and Kindergarten beginning in 1982. She enjoys travel, especially Caribbean beaches, and playing with her grandchildren.
GINNY KIRK
Fours teacher (5 days), Discover Ease teacher, What's Cooking teacher
gkirk@preschoolplace.com
Appointed: 1988
Education/Experience: CDA (Child Development Associate) Credential, 2010. With knowledge gained through attendance of numerous workshops and seminars over the last 22 years, she has created developmentally appropriate science, cooking and nature programs for preschool aged children.
Fun Facts: She enjoys traveling, scrap booking and interior design. She is passionate about her enrichment programs and often spends time recipe hunting , gardening and experimenting with new projects for her classes.
HOLLI KOURY
Fours assistant (3 days), Mini Maestros teacher, Story Stretchers assistant
hkoury@preschoolplace.com
Appointed: 2007
Education/Experience: BA from Binghamton University in English Literature; MS from Binghamton University in Accounting. CDA (Child Development Associate) Credential, 2009.
Fun Facts: Her children attended The Preschool Place and Kindergarten beginning in 1998. She enjoys rock climbing.
CAROL LEVINE
Mini Maestros assistant, Hand in Hand assistant, Kinder Plus assistant
Appointed: 1996
Education/Experience: BS in Social Work from Syracuse University; For 13 years she assisted in our Kinder Plus program.
Fun Facts: Her son attended The Preschool Place and Kindergarten when he was 2, beginning in 1992. He was in the first Kinder Plus class! In her free time she enjoys the beach, travelling, gardening and reading.
LEONA LOMBARDI
Fours assistant, Kindergarten enrichment, Before care
Appointed: 1986
Education/Experience: BA and MA from Farleigh Dickinson University; Most of her time at The Preschool Place and Kindergarten has been as the assistant in our Kindergarten program.
Fun Facts: Both of her children attended The Preschool Place and Kindergarten beginning in 1982. In her spare time she enjoys cooking, knitting, crocheting and spending time at her house in NC.
PATRICIA LYNCH
Fours assistant, What's Cooking assistant
Appointed: 1989
Education/Experience: She completed her education in England.
Fun Facts: She was born and raised in England and became a citizen in 2002.
MELISSA PYLE
Someone Special and Me teacher, Heritage Street, Mazel Tots
mpyle@preschoolplace.com
Appointed: 2005
Education/Experience: BS from University of Delaware. She comes to us with many years of experience working with toddlers and preschoolers.She's been in the field for 10 years including 3 at High Hills, 7 at Meadowbrook as well as Beth El and The Preschool Place and Kindergarten. She likes working with kids who are still shorter that she is.
Fun Facts: She spent many summers at Meadowbrook Day Camp as a division head for the early childhood program and this year spent her summer (and a lot of time during the school year) at her family's Lacrosse stores, Universal Lacrosse, located in Raritan, Skillman, Freehold, Doylestown PA and Suffern, NY. She believes that every day is a good day if you learn something.
JEANNE ROBINSON
Threes teacher, Story Stretchers teacher
jrobinson@preschoolplace.com
Appointed: 2002
Education/Experience: BS in Education from Purdue University, MA from Purdue University in International Business. She taught preschool for 5 years prior to joining us.
Fun Facts: She enjoys reading. She has also gone sky diving.
JOANNE SULLIVAN
Twos assistant
Appointed: 2010
Education/Experience: BS in Communications from St. John's University. She subbed at our preschool for 5 years prior to joining us on the staff.
Fun Facts: Both of her daughters attended the Preschool Place and Kindergarten. She enjoys reading, skiing and going to the beach.
AMY WEINSTEIN
Twos teacher, Little Bytes
aweinstein@preschoolplace.com
Appointed: 1998
Education/Experience: BA in Early Childhood Education from Rider College. She taught Someone Special & Me from 1998– 2007 and has been teaching the twos since 2007.
Fun Facts: All of her children attended The Preschool Place and Kindergarten beginning in 1996. She enjoys baking, reading, traveling and is an avid sports fan for her children’s teams.
STACY ZELLER
Heritage Street coordinator/teacher, Little Bytes teacher
szeller@preschoolplace.com
Appointed: 1988
Education/Experience: B.A. from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She’s taught Judaica and Hebrew for 18 years.
Fun Facts: All four of her children attended the Preschool Place and Kindergarten beginning in 1983. She enjoys the beach and cruising and reading and has belonged to a bowling league since 2005. She also likes playing games especially Bunco, Mah Jongg, and all kinds of word games.