Kensington Hilltop Elementary School-2013 Winner

Bea Lieberman has been teaching  for 45 years. She has taught at high-income schools and at low-income schools. For the past 25 years, she has taught kindergarten and first grade in the West Contra Costa Unified School District.

On the first day of kindergarten, Bea tells each student that they are a priceless treasure. She explains the class is a family and they are all brothers and sisters in school… and that she is their “school mother.” She takes her classes on field trips, so they can see things they never knew existed. She remembers well the young girl from San Pablo years ago who told her how happy she was on one of these trips because she’d never seen the zoo or the ocean.

Bea Lieberman does all this because she knows that kindergarten is the most important grade in the public school system. What children experience in kindergarten sets the tone for their rest of their educational experience.