KATE BOTHE
FOUNDER AND HEAD TEACHER
Kate Bothe founded Bainbridge Preschool in 2004 with her partner, artist and craftsman Eamon Brown. Kate graduated from Brown University's Visual Arts Department and received her M.Ed with a concentration in early childhood education from Endicott College. Early in her teaching career, she became a certified Montessori teacher and soaked in what she was able to when living in Munich, Germany and there, volunteering in a Waldorf Kindergarten. Together with their ten and three year old children, Kate and Eamon maintain a plot in the Brown Street Community Garden, which they helped found. With family roots in the Boston area, and educational inspiration seeded in a magical five months spent during high school living on a working farm in central Vermont, Kate is dedicated to the Providence slow school movement where she continues to grow and learn among loving and curious children, educators, and families.
TILLIE LEONARD-FRITZMEIER
Tillie has always found joy in working with children and after many years of nannying decided to go back to school to get her MEd in Elementary Education and Waldorf Teacher Certification from Antioch University of New England. Since earning her degree in 2014, she has worked with children of all ages, but feels especially drawn to the imaginative years of early childhood. Tillie loves how time spent with young children is similar to her yoga practice; both keep her awareness in the present, both are fertile ground for self reflection and both foster an acceptance of change and a lasting curiosity for life. Tillie is very much enjoying her work with the Bainbridge community where she has worked for a year and a half, and she is excited to continue to build curriculum inspired by the grounding and confidence building effects that nature based play can have on growing young bodies and minds.
HEATHER KAPUT
Heather was beloved teacher at Bainbridge for three years. Prior to teaching at Bainbridge, Heather received her BFA in Art and Art and Art Education from UMASS Dartmouth. Both during and since completing her formal schooling, Heather has much time caring for and teaching children in various capacities -- in home childcare, as founder of the Art Workshop (educational art courses for children), as Art Director at Camp Nonquitt in South Dartmouth, as a teacher at New Bedford early learning center, and at Bainbridge Preschool. Heather currently runs her own beautiful and successful childcare program called the Green House Preschool in Dartmouth, MA where she lives in a home she built with her husband Noah and they live together with their two daughters. Heather is inspired by nature and loves spending quality time exploring the natural world. Heather has always shared her creativity and love of learning with children.