Meet Our Teachers

Our teachers are Montessori-certified, and most have been with the school for years. Two of them are Discovery School parents themselves.

Our School's Story

Discovery School opened in 1975. Jan Schiesser and Barbara Thiele started it with twelve children in each of the first two classes. Barbara retired in 1984, and Janet Wallace, who had been volunteering and teaching here, took over as Director. Jan came back to run the school from 1990 to 2000, after finishing a Master's in Art Therapy. Cathy Brennan became Director in 2000, having already taught here for eight years, and she still leads the school today.

Cathy Brennan, Director and Teacher

Cathy started teaching at Discovery School in 1992 and became Director in 2000. She had already spent five years in other Montessori classrooms before that, so she has been at this work for more than thirty years.

She earned her B.A. at Wilson College and trained at the North American Progressive Montessori Teacher Training Center in Vancouver. She and her husband Tom settled in Topeka in 1985. They have four children, John, Michael, Patrick, and Katie (who graduated from Discovery School), and six grandchildren.

Melissa Younker, Teacher

Melissa joined the teaching staff in 2024, though she knew the school long before that. Her own children went here for four years, and during that time she served on the Board of Directors, including a year as President.

She spent the previous decade raising her family, and before that she worked in education and childcare with kids from five to sixteen. She grew up in northern California and now lives in Lawrence with her husband Darren and their two children.

Beverly Strausbaugh, Teacher

Beverly has taught at Discovery School since November 2014. She grew up on a farm west of Council Grove, was born in Manhattan, Kansas, and is one of identical triplets. She studied Elementary Education with an early-childhood focus at Emporia State University and earned her Montessori certification in 2017.

Before Discovery School she taught kindergarten and first grade in the Kaw Valley district and worked with students who needed extra help. For a while she also worked in retail jewelry. She and her husband Mark have two children, Erica and Braden.