Early Learning Center
Montessori Education
The L. Daniel Hutto Early Learning Center (ELC) is a Montessori preschool for children ages 3-5 who are deaf/hard of hearing or blind/visually impaired. The ELC is a place where your child can learn and grow in a cheerful, nurturing and stimulating environment that emphasizes learning through discovery. Our curriculum focuses on the whole child - building social, emotional, language, self-help, motor and cognitive skills daily through lessons and interactions with staff and peers. Children are led to ask questions, problem-solve, explore, investigate and discover. These processes all help to foster communication and build a love of learning. In finding their own solutions they expand their knowledge base and personalize their learning. Our Montessori preschool nurtures a joy for learning that will prepare children for learning for years to come.
The Montessori approach cultivates a child’s natural desire to learn, think, and act independently. Children are able to work at their own pace and ability, and they learn to act with care and respect toward their fellow students.
Stay and Play Group
The parent-involved Stay and Play Group on the FSDB campus provides developmental learning experiences for children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing or Blind/Visually Impaired, ages birth to 36 months and their caregivers.
The early years are when children use their bodies, senses, and emerging problem-solving skills to make sense of their world. Babies and toddlers actively seek information by exploring their environment and making new discoveries
ELC news
Director
ELC Director
Gail Strassel
Gail Strassel is the Director of the L. Daniel Hutto Early Learning Center (ELC), a Montessori preschool at FSDB. She has worked with young children and their families for more than 30 years–as a classroom teacher, an itinerant teacher, and an early interventionist for families with infants and young children in Texas, North Carolina and South Florida. At FSDB, Strassel is the Coordinator of Early Intervention Services (DHH) for the Parent Infant Program. She is also a SKI-HI Institute trainer, working with professionals in FL and nationally to work with families who have young children and infants who are deaf. She served as the legislative liaison for the Florida Educators of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students (FEDHH) Board from 2005–2016 and still actively participates as a member of this group of FL educators. In 2018, she was appointed to the Florida Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Advisory Board where she will work with stakeholders to help guide policy and practice related to early intervention for families with young children who are deaf.
Montessori Primary Certification, Center for Guided Montessori Studies
Certificate, Family-Centered Education, Gallaudet University
Master of Arts, Deaf Education, University of Northern California
Master of Arts, Elementary Education, University of Northern California
Bachelor of Arts, Special Education, University of Northern California
The education of even a small child, therefore, does not aim at preparing him for school, but for life. ~ Maria Montessori
teachers & Support Staff
Becca Champney
Teacher
Karen Lebrecht
Program Facilitator
Lizzy Gordon
Speech Lang. Pathologist
Delia Lozano
Teacher
Tina Lovato
Instructional Assistant
Brooke Stanfield
Teacher
Lauren Mello
Instructional Assistant
Samantha Ruppe
Teacher
Cally Traetto
Literacy Specialist