Meet Our Teachers

Montessori-trained head teacher, Andrée Young, and assistant teacher, Sharen Schrock, run our program with over 30 years of Montessori teaching experience. Highly skilled and energetic, their exceptional approach to interacting with children is creative, loving, consistent, and positive. They attend to the whole child, incorporating Montessori philosophy in every aspect of the students' day.

Andrée Young
Head Teacher

Andrée M. Young was born in San Francisco and raised in Marin County. She received her B.A. in Special Education in 1978 from the University of Northern Colorado and her American Montessori Society (AMS) certificate at the San Francisco Bay Area Training Center in 1990. She also served the training center as a consultant for four years. Andrée has been teaching 3-6 year olds in the Montessori philosophy since 1988. Her expertise in the Montessori system is enriched by her experience in art, science, music and movement, voice, theater and Spanish. She has traveled in Europe, Mexico and Central America.

Believing that a Montessori education must include the home environment, Andrée has been teaching positive parenting classes for over 20 years. She has been a member of the Petaluma community since 1982 and lives with her husband David. They have a daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters.

Donna Savarese
School Administrator

Donna Savarese is a longtime friend of Andree's. They met in 1989 at Montessori Children's House, here in Petaluma. Donna was the afterschool daycare teacher for 5 years and often worked in the classroom as a substitute teacher in the toddler and preschool programs. She worked as an assistant in a Primary classroom at which time she also began her Montessori training.

In 1995 she received her Primary Montessori teaching certificate after completing a yearlong program with Pacific Coast Montessori. Since then, Donna has been an assistant and co-teacher in Lower Elementary classrooms in both public and private Montessori schools. She has also substituted as a Lead teacher for extended periods of time.

Her other passion is bodywork. Donna is a Massage Therapist and Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner. She started her massage practice in Los Angeles and then moved it to Sonoma County in 1987. She had an office here in town for many years.

Donna lives with her husband, Larry Brown, a Marriage and Family Therapist. They have a daughter, Natasha ( who had the pleasure of having Andree as her teacher from preschool through Kindergarten) who is a freshman at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

Donna is an avid reader, enjoys gardening, art journaling, cooking and baking, long walks and spending quality time with family and friends.

Sharen Schrock, Assistant Teacher

Sharen Schrok
Assistant Teacher

Sharen was born in Madison Wisconsin, and grew up in Petaluma where she currently lives with her husband of 27 years and her two teenage daughters Jaden and Marley. Montessori has been a part of Sharen's life for a long time, since choosing it as the starting point of education for both children. For 14 years Sharen chose to focus on her girls and volunteered to support them in their activities as a Brownie and Girl Scout leader, teaching Sunday School at Elim Lutheran Church, directing and helping in school plays, and being a ballet & soccer mom.

Sharen studied Early Childhood Education at Santa Rosa Junior College, earning an ECE Certification with an emphasis on Montessori Education. We first met her when she came to observe at Red Barn during this time. Since then, she has remained intertwined with Red Barn Montessori for many years as a substitute teacher and briefly as an assistant teacher, so we are very happy to have her back in our classroom again.

Sharen cares about our community and believes in supporting the well-being of every child. Feeling a strong pull to improve the quality and availability of childcare in Sonoma County, she became actively involved with the 4C's program and went on to become a teacher in their Bennett Valley School. Most recently, Sharen was at Liberty School in their aftercare program. And the supervisor of the Kids Club at Petaluma Valley Athletic Club and the Director of their Children's Events there for the last 4 years until their closure.

Sharen has an adventurous spirit. She goes white water rafting iin Montana every year, she has gone skydiving and climbed 14,000 feet to the top of Mount Shasta with her husband. She enjoys time with her children and regular volunteer work for the Carousel Fund. She and Andrée enjoy working together with the kids programing at the Rivertown Revival.