NVNS Plan for Teacher/Director Retirement & Replacement (Updated 4/15/21)
Napa Valley Nursery School’s long-time Teacher/Director, Lori Ware (Mz. Lori), plans to retire after our 2020-21 school year. Adrianne Koford (one of our current Substitute Teachers) will take over as our School Director and become the primary teacher for the MWF class in 2021-22, and Kati DeGuilio (who worked in class when her son attended NVNS) will become the primary teacher for the T/TH class in 2021-22. (Kati will work with Adrianne in the MWF class for a short period of time after school opens in 2021-22, then the T/TH class will open a couple of weeks later.)
The NVNS Board feels confident that having Adrianne take over the School Director role in 2021-22 will provide a smooth and positive transition for our school, and NVNS is fortunate to be able to continue under the guidance of such a wonderful long-term member of our school community. Adrianne is:
- Ready to take on a larger professional role as Teacher/Director at NVNS.
- Currently serving as one of our primary Substitute Teachers and leading our family playdate events.
- An excellent, experienced teacher who has spent a great deal of time teaching at NVNS.
- Highly qualified from an educational standpoint, and enthusiastically endorsed by both the Program Coordinator and the Dean for the Child and Family Studies program at Napa Valley College.
- Extremely knowledgeable about the workings of our business from her time serving on the NVNS Board.
- Truly invested in our NVNS motto (“Together We’re Better!”), and passionate about working with children and their families.
- Committed to continuing NVNS’s focus on offering a safe, inclusive, creative, nurturing, play-based parent cooperative preschool program in an engaging, sensory-rich environment that empowers children and their families to build strong relationships while they work, play, learn, and grow together as a community.
- Dedicated to fostering self-expression and understanding, discovery and wonder, friendship, communication and social skills in an environment that values inclusivity, individuality, collaboration, and community.
To share a bit of their personal backgrounds…
Adrianne Koford attended college at Sacramento State University, where she nannied for a family with three children, volunteered at a children’s counseling center, completed an internship in the Child Life Specialist department at UC Davis Medical Center, and volunteered as a Court-Appointed Special Advocate for at-risk youth in the legal system. After receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Child Development (with a minor in Psychology), she moved to Napa and began working as an Assistant Teacher in Sunrise Montessori’s upper elementary classroom. The following year, she began teaching at the Napa Valley College Child Development Center as one of two head teachers in the toddler classroom. During her time at NVC CDC, she supervised several teacher assistants and lab students from the Early Childhood Education Department and ran a full-day classroom. She left teaching for a brief time after her oldest child was born (working on a part-time basis for a local children’s store), but returned to the classroom as a working parent while her 3 children attended NVNS. She served as a Board Member for all 6 of the years her children attended NVNS, then served as the school’s Alumni Advisor for another year when her youngest child went to elementary school. Adrianne quickly became one of the school’s primary Substitute Teachers, and she also now holds a Site Supervisor Child Development permit with the State of California.
Kati DeGuilio graduated from Sacramento State University in 2007, with a Bachelor’s degree in Child Development. While taking classes at Sac State, Kati worked as the head teacher at First Christian Preschool in their 2 year old classroom and in the infant room. After graduation Kati and her husband moved to Santa Cruz where she took a Director’s position at LifeSpring Preschool. Kati was first introduced to Napa Valley Nursery School by her husband Nick DeGuilio, who attended NVNS himself back in 1984. Kati and Nick have three children, their second is a NVNS alumni, and their youngest is enrolled at NVNS for the 2021-22 school year. Kati is thrilled to be joining the NVNS team and is exited to begin teaching in the fall.
In this important transition process, our NVNS motto holds so true – together we really are better!