Governance
Greetings and welcome to Prairie Moon Waldorf School from the Board of Trustees!
We hope that you take time to explore our website and see all the wonderful things Prairie Moon, and Waldorf education, have to offer children, families, faculty, staff and our whole community.
As the Board of Trustees, we serve in one realm of the threefold governance structure in Waldorf schools. Our primary job is to ensure the financial and legal health of the organization. This includes budgeting and financial management, creating organizational structure and policies, managing business contracts, and ensuring that the school remains in good standing with governmental and professional organizations. It also includes the broader work of long-term and strategic planning for the school, assuring that we are consistently anticipating and improving appropriately to meet the needs of our growing student body.
The board welcomes parent interest and attendance at meetings. We can also be reached at board@prairiemoon.org. Specifically, we are able to receive your questions and suggestions regarding the areas in which the board works and direct any other comments or concerns to appropriate faculty, administrative staff, or committee chairs.
We hope to hear from you!
PMWS Board of Trustees
Antonis Stylianou (President) joined the Prairie Moon Board in 2021. He and his wife, Nea have 2 children; their oldest, Stelios began attending Prairie Moon early childhood in 2011 and he was in the 2021 graduating class. Their youngest daughter, Thekla started in Prairie Moon in 2014. Antonis grew up in Limassol, Cyprus and moved to Lawrence, KS in 1994 to attend the University of Kansas. He is now an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Missouri – Kansas City where he teaches courses in engineering, advanced mathematics, and bioengineering, and conducts research in the areas of biomechanics and orthopaedics. Antonis was drawn to the Waldorf School because of how similar it is to the system of education that he experienced in Cyprus. Over the last ten years he and his wife have seen the positive impact that Prairie Moon has had on their children and are looking forward to continuing being part of this community.
Heather Schwenk (Vice-President) joined the Prairie Moon board in 2021. She and her family relocated to Lawrence, KS during the pandemic from Washington, DC after learning about Prairie Moon Waldorf School. Heather is originally from southeast Kansas and went to Kansas State University. After college, Heather served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic for over two years. After completing her service, Heather moved to Washington, DC as a Recruiter with the Peace Corps and currently works remotely as a Senior Advisor for the Agency.
Heather is grateful for the Waldorf experience at Prairie Moon and the positive impact it has had on her and her family. Additionally, the school has refocused them on nature and outings to the nearby creek. She feels joy knowing how much her two boys have learned through the Waldorf experience this past school year. Heather looks forward to the years to come at Prairie Moon!
Andrew Roberts (Treasurer) was raised in Lawrence with a strong sense of community. His formative years taught him to value diversity, curiosity, and compassion. He and his brothers were encouraged to explore and pursue that which gave them joy.
He attended the University of Kansas, earning a degree in Environmental Studies. Upon graduating, he immersed himself in organic farming--working for and learning from a local organic farmer and subsequently growing his own vegetables and running a CSA. When an opportunity came to move to Woodstock, New York, he jumped at the chance and spent the next eight years there. He took on large gardening projects and continued to work with organic vegetables as a manager at a local health food store. In Woodstock, Andrew started a family. A friend sent a copy of You Are Your Child’s First Teacher by Rahima Baldwin and thus began his journey into the world of Waldorf education. Andrew’s daughter Iona attended a Waldorf early childhood program in Woodstock. It was during this time that he began to daydream about one day working with children in a Waldorf setting.
Andrew moved with his partner and two young daughters back to the Midwest with the goal of returning to the land and farming. He lives in the county and is currently raising lambs and is back in the garden. He looks forward to fostering a safe and imaginative environment for children to experience the world while maintaining their sense of wonder. Andrew approaches children holistically, striving to nourish all aspects of their temperaments and understanding their needs so that they may thrive.
Tara Sparks (Secretary) joined the board in 2022 with a desire to support the growth and evolution of Prairie Moon. Tara was raised in a small Northeast Kansas town surrounded by a family of teachers, coaches, and farmers. In this environment, she developed a love of learning, a respect for nature, and a desire to be part of a supportive community.
Tara attended the University of Kansas where she earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in linguistics. She continued with her education at the University of Kansas, obtaining her Education Specialist in School Psychology. The program required immersive studies in developmental and learning theories, psychoeducational evaluation, diagnostics, therapeutic interventions, applied behavior analysis, special education law, consultation, and systems process and evaluation. Through this program and her professional experience within the public school system, Tara came to know of Waldorf education and Prairie Moon Waldorf School. Before having children of her own, she knew that if she ever did, she wanted them to attend Prairie Moon.
In 2014, she and her husband welcomed their first child and moved to Lawrence in hopes of becoming part of the Prairie Moon community. Since then, the Sparks family has grown from a family of three to a family of five, and their love and appreciation for Prairie Moon has only continued to grow with their family.
Anna Talleur (Faculty Liaison) I am the daughter of two visual artists. I grew up thinking that all adults spent their time creating beauty and harmony of colors and shapes and was surprised (and perhaps still am) that many adults do other things.
When I was ten years old I moved with my mother to Italy, where I was placed in fifth grade in the local Italian public school. Although I spoke no Italian when I first got there, within weeks I understood, then spoke, then read, and finally wrote the language fluently. I completed school in Italy in the public school system.
I promised to attend the University of Kansas for a year, I got married to my husband Massimo, had three babies who changed my whole world and have been my inspiring muses ever since, received a Bachelor’s Degree in Classical Languages and Classical Antiquities and a Master’s Degree in Classical Languages and I have not left Kansas yet. I unschooled my three children, taught Italian at K.U., and moved to a farm where my husband and I taught ourselves animal husbandry, gardening, canning and cheese-making.
My fourth child came to us in 2010, amidst the fog of teen-aged angst and college applications of the prior three children, and changed the course of our lives again. It was Zoe who brought me to Prairie Moon, and thanks to her experience here I have fallen in love with this school, the people who gravitate towards it and the promise of renewal it bears with it.
I completed three years of Waldorf training at the Scuola Waldorf Silvana Corazza di Sagrado in Trieste, Italy and have now transferred to Sunbridge Institute to complete training as a Waldorf Elementary teacher. The four years I have worked with children at Prairie Moon have been perhaps the greatest and most valuable learning experience of my life and I have enjoyed every moment. I am eager to guide my students through the eighth grade and then set them free to become just the humans that are needed in the world in these times: strong, true, imbued with grace, and full of hope.
Maya Weil: coming soon
Administrative Director Ex-Officio: Jeff Kennedy joined the Board in 2009, has been Board President and many other roles over the years, and served as the school's Accountant.
What brings Jeff to PMWS is the emphasis on imagination for the pre-school and kindergarten classes and the comprehensiveness of the curriculum for the grade school students. His daughter, Zana, is an alumna of Prairie Moon graduating from 2021’s 8th grade class. He attended the first summer teacher preparation hosted by Prairie Moon in 2012, and completed a 3 year Waldorf Administrator training in 2020. He visits other Waldorf schools around the country when on vacation, if possible, in order to visualize what’s to come for Prairie Moon. Jeff's passion and understanding of Anthroposophy is a vital piece of a healthy Waldorf School Administration.
