Directors & Board

Katy Korte, Executive Director

Greetings! I am Katy Korte and I am the director of the Kirksville Child Development Center. Parents and I started the program in 2006; we have been striving to help it grow and best serve young children and families ever since. I grew up on a farm in central Missouri, the oldest of four and with many cousins. From a young age, I felt drawn to caring for young children. It led me to graduate with a BA in Human Development and Family Studies with an emphasis in Children in Group Settings in 1997. I worked with preschoolers and college students at the Child Development Lab at the University of Missouri-Columbia as an assistant instructor for a year before moving to Omaha and working in a toddler program with Westside Community Schools. In 2000 my husband and I moved to Kirksville, MO, and I enrolled in the Master of Arts program at Truman State University. While finishing my degree, I began working at the Child Development Center at Truman, where I had been a scholarship student during my undergrad years. When the CDC was closed in 2006, a group of dedicated parents and I had the dream of starting a parent cooperative preschool, and with a lot of hard work, we made that happen. That’s where I’ve been ever since.

 All of that being said…How we raise and nurture and foster and listen to our young children ripples out to every part of life. Early childhood (birth through 5) is so foundational, it is quite mind-boggling! I seek to respect the dignity of every child in our program; to give them the experience of safely and confidently acting on the world around them, to explore and experiment, to repeat projects and use the creativity they naturally have; to respond lovingly and consistently, setting boundaries when needed; to understand and share with parents how kids grow and develop even when they have different personalities and temperaments.

In 2000 I attended a conference in Omaha with early childhood educator Bev Bos. I was mesmerized!! She led me to integrate all my previous experiences into a clearer picture of what an early childhood setting needs to look like. Her kids were digging in mud and painting with their hands and running around everywhere – being kids! She expresses concern over the push-down curriculum that continues today and the consequences of not allowing kids to play when they are young. In play, kids not only learn the foundations for all things academic – early reading, writing, math, science – but the more foundational experiences of belonging, self-expression, self-esteem, creativity, risk-taking, “grit,” silliness, joy, wonder, persistence, relationships, etc. These all develop in the messiness of play.

And so, at the K-CDC we play! We have a tumbling room for large motor projects, a huge art easel for enthusiastic painting, dramatic play clothes for pretending, enough books for a library, a humongous sandbox for digging and water play, a 2-story clubhouse for looking out over the world, a couch for reading and cuddling, and much more. We also have intuitive adults who are trained to be present and to appropriately respond to the many needs of preschool-aged children.

We invite you to visit our center and explore for yourself and to talk to some of our parents about our coop-model. It truly takes a village to raise our kids, and we hope we are creating a community to do just that!

Katy Korte

Director

The KCDC 2022-2023 Board Members

• KCDC Director and Teacher: Hannah Magruder

• President: Ryan Olsen

• Vice President: Sarah Maddox

• Secretaries: Amy Murray and Tracey Myers

• Treasurer: Erin Kuhn

• Member At Large: Dana Elam