Meet the Team
Melissa Chordas
Owner & Lead Teacher
Tanya
Tanya, is the well known former director at Russell Park CDC. Since retiring, she loves caring for her grandchildren, elderly mother, spending time in nature and sometimes can be found at Stacking Stones School! Tanya appreciates the community at Stacking Stones and still being able to spend time with young children. Whenever she comes by it is always a special visit.
Ben, Theo, & Jasper
School Mascots
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Stacking Stones School is based in home, but spaces are strictly divided into classroom space vs home space. While Ben, Theo, and Jasper will mostly be in the home space during school hours, they do spend time in the school space. Jasper especially adores the children and was raised at Stacking Stones since he was 8 weeks old. If your child is allergic to cats or dogs this may not be the space for you
When Melissa was in preschool she wanted to be Beatrix Potter when she grew up: writing stories to share with children through teaching. She dreamt up a farm that was filled with animals and a school house out back where she would be a kindergarten teacher. Stacking Stones School is an over thirty year dream that is fueled by many years of teaching experience, a passion of teaching and a hope of building a kind community.
Melissa received her graduate degree in Creative Writing at UC Davis in 2009 and met all her requirements to earn her elementary Teaching Credential. Her thesis explored the way creative story connects diverse groups of people in communities. She spent time teaching story telling to a group of high school students who created a story about the revitalization of their remote community, that was turned into a PBS documentary. After graduate school Melissa independently found a remote orphanage in the far north of Vietnam and organized a trip, fundraiser, and traveled to teach english and bring a clean water filtration system to the orphanage (there is a newspaper article somewhere about this). After her travels to Vietnam, she found herself head teacher for eight years at an NAEYC accredited school, where she managed a classroom, created curriculum, and successfully maintained national accreditation for the program. Melissa strives to bring imagination, creativity, diversity, and nature into her program and classroom.
When Melissa isn't teaching, you can find her spending time with her dogs, hanging out at a brewery, mushroom hunting in the forest, climbing a mountain, or exploring the world through international travel.