Our School & Staff
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Located in scenic Westford, VT, between Essex and Jericho, on a 225-acre parcel, our school house is an old post and beam barn originally built in 1790. We are sited on an active sugar bush, and we consider the land around us as much our classroom as our beautiful barn. We work to make sure that our classroom environments are warm and inviting while also encouraging our students to develop genuine thought and practice in the surroundings around them.
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Kara Von Behren, DirectorKara has her undergraduate degree in English and her MAEd in Secondary Education from The College of William & Mary. She has been working in education for over twenty years, teaching and leading programs serving infants through college students and everything in between. Kara is the director of an early childhood program in Williston and teaches a course in educational leadership at CCV. She founded The Barn School because she believes that school should be a place that honors children and helps them be their best selves, and she wanted to create a space where students and educators could do that through a shared sense of belonging and growth that embraces nature. When she isn’t at one of her various schools, Kara enjoys crafting, reading, and spending time with her family.
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Our Teachers
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Ms. Riley | Spirit Class TeacherRiley holds an undergraduate degree in education and minor in psychology. She began her teaching journey at The Barn School, where she has been teaching for the past 2.5 years. Riley loves turning learning into an adventure, inspiring her kindergarten and first grade students to discover the joy of reading, explore new worlds through books, and see how much they can learn. She reminds her students that practice and learning lead to progress, perfection isn’t the goal.
Outside the classroom, Riley enjoys creative hobbies like embroidery, floral pressing, resin art, pebble art, and pyrography, and she loves getting lost in a good book. When she isn’t crafting or reading, she embraces her adventurous side by jumping out of perfectly good airplanes. |
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Ms. Hannah | Heart Class TeacherHannah earned her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from SNHU focusing her research on supporting educators in implementing culturally responsive teaching practices. She has been an educator for over ten years teaching pre-k through 4th grade. Hannah embraces an interdisciplinary, project-based approach to teaching, with a strong emphasis on social-emotional learning and student ownership. In her free time, she enjoys painting, reading, playing the fiddle, and spending time with her family and dog.
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Ms. Danielle | Wonder Class TeacherDanielle has an undergrad degree in child psychology and a Master of Arts in teaching from UVM. She has been an educator for six years. Danielle embraces an inquiry- and project-based approach to teaching, and is passionate about providing authentic opportunities for students to apply their learning. In her free time, Danielle enjoys hiking, skiing, swimming, writing and reading.
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