Our People

Claire Hamrick

Directress

Started working at the local YMCA in childcare the moment she turned 18 after volunteering as a dance teacher for years prior. This job continued the entire time she worked towards her receiving her degree in Early Childhood Education from Ohio University. She was also an active participant within 4-H and counseled many different Summer Camps through high school and college. This opened more doors to further credentials such as Project W.E.T. and W.I.L.D., which are nature based curriculums for elementary children. She taught Kindergarten and 2nd grade and then returned to the YMCA as their preschool director when she found out she was pregnant with her first child. Here she worked to revamp their curriculum. She then took two years off from teaching as she transitioned into motherhood. Lancaster Montessori School was recommended to her as a preschool for her oldest son. They visited during an open house and she has not left since! She started as a part-time assistant and within a few months, transitioned into lead teacher. She was soon promoted again, this time to Directress at the half-way point of the 2019 school year. Her first full year as a Directress was during COVID. She has since completed the certification program for the American Montessori Society and is credentialed in Early Childhood. 

Miss Claire’s favorite color is teal and her favorite food is a close tie between pizza and tacos.

One of her favorite quotes from Maria Montessori is found within her book the Absorbent Mind and states “It (peace) does not humiliate him, but rather makes him conscious of his own power over the Universe. And because it is based on man’s nature it is a constant a universal principle that applies to all human beings.”

Katelynn Walker

Lead Facilitator of Learning

Katelynn began her journey in working with children when she was 16 years old as a C.I.T. (Counselor in Training) at Camp Wyandot in the Hocking Hills. She continued her training as a counselor for another summer and then transitioned into a full-time counselor at the camp. During her first full year as a counselor she realized that she was in awe of the rate of speed and accuracy that children learned, pondering how she could make this into a career when teaching popped up. After high school graduation, she applied to complete her Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education at Ohio University. Katelynn fell in love and admiration for the Montessori Method during her internship at the Ohio University Child Development Center where she worked closely with a group of infant children. During this time she was in search of a place where she could work and grow in a loving environment centered around the children and their needs. During the summer of 2022 is when she discovered the Lancaster Montessori School and immediately applied, hoping that maybe she could join the community in some way. During her first year at the Lancaster Montessori School she worked as a full-time assistant and was promoted a little before the half-way point of the school year to lead teacher. Katelynn has plans to continue her education as a life-long learner at the Columbus Montessori School in the next few years. 

Katelynn’s favorite food is cheeseburgers and all of the colors are her favorite! She also loves cool facts about nature and her favorite organisms are trees. 

One her favorite quotes from Maria Montessori is from the Absorbent Mind and it states, “The first step an intending Montessori teacher must take is to prepare herself. For one thing, she must keep her imagination alive, for while, in the traditional schools, the teacher sees the immediate behavior of her pupils, knowing that she must look after them and what she has to teach, the Montessori teacher is constantly looking for the child who is not yet there.”