Jenny Levine-Smith of Beth Ami Community Nursery School wins Non Profit Leadership Award

Describe your organization.

Beth Ami Community Nursery School is a Reggio-inspired, constructivist, Jewish preschool in Santa Rosa. We have loving and creative teachers, a rich learning environment, and low child-to-teacher ratios. Our curriculum is based on the idea that children are scientists, and that they learn by asking questions and seeking their own answers through exploration. We focus heavily on the social-emotional component of learning. We treat conflicts between children as teachable moments and approach them in a loving and developmentally appropriate way, so that we may guide our students towards self-regulation. We infuse Jewish values, culture, and tradition into the curriculum in a way that is open and joyful, so that both our Jewish and non-Jewish students can learn and celebrate together.

Professional background:

I started out professionally as a sports reporter, writing for the Eureka Times-Standard and then doing research for ESPN The Magazine. While working at ESPN, I began volunteering at Harlem RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities). Coaching a team of thirteen-year-old girls made me rethink my career choice, and I went back to school to become a teacher. I taught English and History for seven years at Roseland Charter Middle School in Santa Rosa. While taking two years off to be home with my children, I co-founded and co-wrote the blog Low Drama Mamas, which focused on adapting classroom management techniques into strategies that parents can use at home with their kids. I have been the Director of Beth Ami Community Nursery School for two and a half years, and I serve on the board of directors at the Children's Museum of Sonoma County.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am a thinker, a writer, a talker, a listener, and a problem solver. I am a perpetual work-in-progress, seeking out people with different perspectives and ideas and then honing and refining my understanding of my field and of the world. I am a mom to two fascinating children and have been married to my husband, who is my polar opposite in many ways, for 12 years. I thrive on spending time with family and friends, talking and laughing about anything and everything, preferably over good food and wine. I am at my best professionally when I am educating adults about what excellent early childhood education looks and sounds like. One of my long-term professional goals is to use that skill, among others, to promote equity of access to high quality programs for underserved children and families.

What is your role in the organization?

I am the Director of the Nursery School, so my role is to be everything to everyone, sometimes simultaneously and without warning. I am an advocate, a liaison, and an educator – of children obviously, but also of adults. I teach non-teachers what is happening in children's brains and bodies when they play, and I coach teachers to refine their practice and help deepen children's learning.

What achievement are you most proud of?

Creating a culture at the school that is built on transparency, inquiry, mutual respect, and trust.

What is your biggest challenge today?

Finding a way to keep our school accessible to families financially while paying my teachers a salary that is worthy of their talents, compassion, and commitment to our students and families.

What is the next major project either under way or on the horizon?

We are currently building a musical garden on our play yard. Our educational philosophy holds that the school environment is itself a teacher, and we are working on developing our outdoor space so that it matches the richness and variety of our indoor classrooms. This means bringing art and music and other often-indoor activities out to mingle with nature. Our arbor is complete, and one of our teachers has built a harp and a xylophone for it. We are currently collecting items from home (coffee mugs, wooden spoons, tin cans, bells) to hang with the children from the arbor so that they can experiment with sound in the outdoors.

What product or service would/or is helping you do your job more effectively?

Kaymbu is an application that allows me to take photos, tag students and teachers, and send a tailored photo e-mail directly to each parent's inbox in a weekly digest. This is an essential communication tool, especially in a preschool, for the obvious reason that our kids are young and do not do a fabulous job recounting the happenings of their day when they get home. Kaymbu e-mails strengthen the home-school connection, help ease parents' anxiety about their child's (often first) school experience, and are a great marketing tool for the school.

How do you think your profession will change in the next five years?

I hope that the educational system at large and that more individual schools in particular will move towards setting policy, designing curriculum, and making disciplinary decisions based on research and on where children are in their developmental journey, rather than where chronological averages say that they should be. There are so many knowledgeable educators and educational researchers out there. Those folks need a seat at the table and a megaphone. I think opening doors between schools can play an important role in making this change. This year alone, we've hosted visitors from six other preschools, Sonoma Country Day School, and the Children's Museum of Sonoma County, and I've visited five other schools myself. Sharing and bouncing ideas off of each other, seeing our school through outsiders' eyes, and visiting a new environment helps me prioritize and up my game.

Most admired businessperson outside your organization:

Gail Ahlas, the former Superintendent of the Roseland School District, is an absolute powerhouse. She has never met a challenge she didn't take on, and has never heard a “no” that she wasn't convinced she could turn into a “yes.” As the visionary steward of the district, she spearheaded the creation of a charter middle school and high school to serve the specific needs of families who were falling through the cracks elsewhere. She consistently led staff in reflection on what was going well, and what the district could be doing better. She empowered teachers and administrators to be leaders in the solution. Roseland University Prep is (among other things) a machine when it comes to helping first-generation college hopefuls navigate the complex web of grant, scholarship, and college applications. When she saw that getting her students “to” college wasn't enough, Ms. Ahlas created the “Through College” program, which supports former students once they are in college.

QUICK TAKES

Current reading: “Becoming Nicole,” by Amy Ellis Nutt; “Renewal,” by Harold Kwalwasser; and “Hamilton,” by Ron Chernow.

Most want to meet: Lin-Manuel Miranda. Can you arrange that?

Stress relievers: Sitting on the patio at sunset with the husband drinking rosé, spending time with friends and family, rocking out in the car with my kids, going to the Healdsburg summer concerts.

Favorite hobbies: Skiing, reading the New York Times, traveling (I vaguely remember what that was like), wine tasting, walking, crossword puzzles, writing, reading.

Social media you most use: Facebook. Through my friends' feeds, I've discovered a ton of thought-provoking media that I would not have found on my own.

Buzz word from your industry you hate the most: Zero tolerance. This is a phrase that most often arises in discussions about suspensions for minor offenses or the school-to-prison pipeline. But I'm amazed at how many preschools have versions of zero-tolerance policies when it comes to biting, hitting, or dramatic play around fighting themes. No one wants to see their child (or any child) get hurt, and no one wants their child to grow up to be aggressive or violent.

But zero-tolerance policies in preschool are based on adult fear rather than on developmentally appropriate expectations. A zero-tolerance environment teaches children to hide their “misbehavior” from adults rather than to develop self-control, and it sets many up for failure. When teachers facilitate conflict negotiation with young children (especially after someone has been hurt), we help them develop the empathy, language, and self-advocacy skills required to be more successful in future conflicts. But when we are too busy squashing the conflict and imparting judgment to engage kids in the process of working it out, those learning opportunities go right out the window.

Typical day at the office: One of the first things that I do when I come to work is plant myself out front in the courtyard to greet our students and their families/caregivers as they arrive. It's very important to me to see as many folks as I can on their way in. Every “Hi, how are you?” deepens relationships and provides one more opportunity for parents to approach me with a question or concern that they might otherwise have let go. There really is no typical day. Any given week will include meetings, tours for prospective families or visiting educators, writing, photo taking and tagging, big-picture planning, and detailed implementation. I work on grant applications and reporting, visit classrooms, support teachers, plan and implement professional development, and sometimes help kids fall asleep and put band-aids on owies.

Best place to work outside of the office: East Meets West Café. I hold as many lunch meetings as possible there. It's five minutes away from work, and their East West Tofu Salad is amazing.

Words that best describe you: Compassionate, persuasive, engaged, reflective, not afraid to call myself out or be called out (constructively please) on my missteps.

Anything you want to add? I alternate between feeling disheartened by the negativity in the world and invigorated by all of the people working to change the narrative. I am determined to do the latter. My grand plan has two parts: Teach my own children and our students to be upstanders; and work to create systemic change on a grand scale. Part 1 of my plan is in full swing. I'm still figuring out how to fully implement part 2.