Teachers & Administration
General Education Teachers | Subject Teachers | Student Support Staff | Homeschool Teachers | Administration
General Education Teachers
The Waldorf model includes class teachers in grades 1-8 looping with their students for more than one year. Some teachers stay with their classes all eight years, some are middle school experts, some are early elementary experts. Kindergarten teachers are stable in their self-contained classrooms, continuing as kinder teachers year after year.
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Subject Teachers
Subject teachers specialize in areas of expertise and have the vantage point of teaching many classes, with some teaching all 1-8 students in the school.
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Student Support Staff
Our social-emotional and behavioral support staff includes our dean of students, our school counselor, and our school social worker. Our academic interventionists provide specialized support for students needing small group help in reading and mathematics. Special education teachers support students who qualify for special education. Our gifted and talented teacher provides support for students qualifying for advanced learning plans. Our paraprofessionals and assistants provide further support for students.
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Homeschool Teachers
Homeschool teachers provide supplemental programming for students who are primarily educated in the home environment. We have an in-person homeschool program – the Village Homeschool. We also have an online homeschool program – the Frontier Homeschool.
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Administration
TERESA M. WOODS, PH.D.
Executive Director
Dr. Woods brings to Mountain Song her experience in, and love for, both Waldorf education and public education. She has been involved in Waldorf schools as a class teacher, board member, mentor, teacher educator, professional development specialist, and school leader. She has been at Mountain Song since 2018, living her dream of making Waldorf approaches accessible for all students through public education.
Teresa’s career has woven together her callings in both education and natural science. She discovered the gem of Waldorf education in 1983 while working for Oak Meadow School, and even as she continues to pursue broad interests, Waldorf pedagogy and phenomenological science remain core to her practice.
She earned her B.A. in environmental education from Prescott College; Waldorf certification at Emerson College in England; M.S. in Biology (plant ecology) and Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, both from Kansas State University. She was Assistant Professor at Fort Hays State University before moving to Colorado Springs. She has taught at the elementary, secondary, undergraduate, and graduate levels, and has earned award recognition for research and teaching. She’s received numerous grants to lead innovative educational programs in science education, social-emotional learning, and teacher licensure. She is currently leading capital renovation and expansion at Mountain Song Community School, where she loves greeting the hundreds of K-8 students, teachers and staff each morning in the beautiful historic 1901 school building that looks out to Pikes Peak.
SARAH KREGER
Director of School Performance
Sarah has worked with Mountain Song since its beginning starting in May 2013. Being a part of the initial development of the school and helping the school grow these past years remain to be her proudest professional and personal accomplishments.
In her role as the Director of School Performance, Sarah serves the school in coordinating, scheduling, and administering assessments, oversees enrollment and the school’s data systems, and submits data reports to the state. Prior to her work at Mountain Song, she served for four years as a Military Impact Planner II at the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments (PPACG) and served as Regional Sustainability Coordinator for the agency. At PPACG, Sarah worked on the Fort Carson Regional Growth Plan and helped develop the Pikes Peak region’s first long-term sustainability plan – Looking to Our Future: Pikes Peak Region 2030 (PPR 2030).
For over 10 years, Sarah has served the environmental community in the Pikes Peak region. She’s worked for Sustainable Fort Carson, served on the Board of Directors for Southern Colorado Clean Cities Coalition, and help start two local environmental efforts: the Colorado Springs Conservation Corps and the Peak Alliance for a Sustainable Future. In 2013, she received a Community Sustainability Champion award from Fort Carson at the annual Colorado Sustainability Conference.
Being a native to Colorado Springs and avid nature and history lover, Sarah’s passion is to preserve the natural and cultural resources in the region for her children and future generations to enjoy. When she is not working at Mountain Song, Sarah enjoys gardening, baking, beekeeping, making art and music, hiking with her finance, and playing with her children.
KARL JOHNSON
Pedagogical Director
Mr. Karl Johnson has been an educator for over 40 years and has taught in the Waldorf movement since 1986. He brings an absolute wealth of experience to Mountain Song.
He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Utah State University and his Master’s in Guidance and Counseling from Utah State University. He also holds a Waldorf Education Support Specialist Certificate from the Gradalis Institute. Mr. Johnson has been a Waldorf class teacher and music teacher for over twenty years and a Waldorf pedagogical leader, mentor, and trainer for the last decade.
An experienced adult educator, Mr. Johnson has mentored and trained hundreds of teachers at dozens of Waldorf schools including in China, Nepal, New Zealand, the Hawaiian Islands, Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. He currently serves on the faculty of Gradalis Institute in Denver, and has also previously taught on the faculty for the West Coast Institute for Studies in Anthroposophy in British Columbia and in the Xian Waldorf Teacher Training Program in Xian, China. He is the author of the forthcoming book, Honing Our Craft: Pedagogy and Leadership in the Waldorf Classroom.
CORI KARASIUK
Dean of Students
Ms. Cori Karasiuk serves as the Dean of Students, bringing her rich expertise as a child, adolescent, and family therapist to the role. As we transform the position of Student Support Coordinator to Dean of Students, we think she is the perfect fit and are excited about her stepping into this position.
Communication and Development
LAUREN FERRARA
Communication and Development Specialist
Lauren Ferrara brings a wealth of expertise to her role at Mountain Song. She is founder and owner of Why Wait Stories & Lauren Ferrara Storytelling. She was Evening Anchor for over 5 years with KXRM-TV FOX News, producing daily news stories and directing the newscast. She conceived of and launched the #girlcrush series, and produced the Cybersafe Community segments. She also served as reporter and anchor at news stations in Tennessee, Nevada, and Texas. Lauren’s journalism and reporting has been recognized by the Colorado Broadcasters Association with Best Feature & Best Feature Runner Up in 2017, and Best Regularly Scheduled Newscast in 2016. She was an EMMY nominee in 2010 for Journalistic Enterprise for “Innocence Sold.”
Lauren attended Universidad de Belgrano in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and earned her B.A. in Psychology and Kinesiology from Rice University in Houston, Texas. Throughout her career, she has participated in, and spearheaded events for, organizations such as the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region, the Air Force Association, the Children’s Literacy Center, Goodwill’s Chic Boutique, The Success Collective, Junior League, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and others. Among her many duties, Lauren creates and curates Mountain Song’s social media feed that can be found here at this link.
