Preschool is Where She’s Meant to Be

By Maggie FitzRoy

Christy Maurer loves working with preschool age children and they love her. In March, just days after beginning her new position as Christ Church Preschool’s Head of School, she was gratified to learn how much the love is mutual.

“One little boy told his mom, ‘Ms. Maurer is my new best friend.’” she says. “Young children make you feel important. They make you feel smart. They make you feel loved. I’ve loved every job I’ve had, and each time I thought I’d never get another job as good as the last, but they just kept getting better and better. And now this. This is my dream job. This is where I’m meant to be.”

Christy’s extensive experience as a teacher of young children and as an administrator has prepared her well for her position at Christ Church’s preschool, which opened in 1955 and is now in its 70th year.

She grew up in Kentucky, and after graduating from Western Kentucky University, began her teaching career at Ponte Vedra Palm Valley Elementary School, where she taught first grade. In 1996, when Ocean Palms Elementary opened, she became a founding faculty member there, where she taught first grade for several years while earning a master’s degree in elementary education at the University of North Florida.

In 2000, she and her husband moved to California, where she taught kindergarten and first grade in Del Mar. Then, returning to Atlantic Beach after the first of their two children was born, Christy taught at Neptune Beach Elementary before taking a position as a preschool teacher at Jacksonville Country Day School, later becoming Director of Education. Christy moved back to the beaches when she joined Episcopal School of Jacksonville, Beaches Campus, teaching kindergarten before taking a newly created position as Director of Lower School Curriculum and Instruction.

Then on March 3, she came back to Ponte Vedra when she became Head of School at Christ Church’s preschool, which serves children 12 months old to kindergarten. The school currently has 241 children enrolled, with 30 classroom teachers and teacher assistants as well as an art teacher, a Spanish teacher, a music teacher, and a physical education teacher.

A decades-old tradition at Christ Church, the preschool is extremely popular and registration for each school year fills up quickly, as does its summer camp. And Christy is excited to be here.

“This is exactly where I’ve always wanted to be,” says Christy, who grew up Methodist and now attends Christ Church. “My experience in the last thirty years has prepared me for this position. I feel like God wanted me here.”