Our School
Our Mission
The Mission of KLA Schools is to provide a safe, innovative environment and high quality education for the students of our communities inspired by the Reggio Emilia Approach to education.
Vision & Values
Individuality
All children are honored as individuals who are intrinsically motivated and are active participants in their learning.
Relationships
Relationships are at the core of our educational approach and are built with our surroundings: people, materials, and environments.
Collaboration
Families, educators and children are partners in learning and research.
Process
Through documentation, the learning process of teachers and children is made visible for furthering understanding, expanding on concepts, and celebrating ideas.
Intentionality
Environments are safe, nurturing, and designed to promote experiences that invite children and adults to enter into meaningful dialogues that foster children’s innate curiosity, creativity, and thinking.
Our Leadership Team
Candelaria Ortega
Principal
HAZEL REYES
Pedagogical Coordinator
ANGELIVETTE RODRIGUEZ
Elementary Coordinator & 1st Grade Teacher
TESSY WASSMANN
Director of Admissions and Enrollment Management
JOHANNA EARL
Preschool Director
DANIELA OSPINA
Preschool Assistant Director
FABIANA PERERA BAIZ
Afterschool Director
A Letter from the Principal
Dear Families,
I would like to give you a warm welcome to KLA Schools of Brickell.
My name is Candelaria Ortega and I am the Pedagogical Director of KLA Schools. Together with a strong team of educators, we have built a place where children are respected, valued, given the opportunity to discover and are at the center of this school. We are committed to maintaining a center strongly based on the aspect of quality in education. When you tour our school, we hope you feel compelled to have your child be part of this experience, and to join a place of passion for children. Here at KLA Schools, we have the opportunity to offer an education with strong values.
Our mission reflects the importance of co-existing peacefully within great diversity. We promote different ways of thinking and a community that respects everyone’s process and opinion.
In today’s world, because we believe in the importance of finding innovation in education, a strong investment is made in professional development. This is essential to the goals of our school and to the research of quality in early childhood education. Our mission makes wider all the learning possibilities to create a rich context of experiences for children in our school.
We see our environment at KLA Schools as a source of inspiration for the children to freely express their creativity. Indoor and outdoor experiences, along with a wide variety of materials such as natural, man-made, and recycled among others are offered in the daily life of every child.
Social and emotional growth is fostered as an essential component of children’s development, giving them the opportunity to be the best citizens of our community and of the world!
We hope our first impression will highly impact your decision to offer your child a remarkable early childhood education.
Warm Regards,
Candelaria Ortega
Principal
“A school has to be a place of passion, not for the children to learn it, but to express it, school has to cultivate the passion of learning.” Carlina Rinaldi
Parents as Our Partners
Parents are a crucial factor in our program. In fact, parents are our partners. Our teachers understand and respect that parents are their children’s first teacher. Their involvement in the school gives their children a sense of security and is deeply appreciated. We recognize that stable, quality relationships during the early years are fundamental for later developmental outcomes.
Collaboration between teachers, parents and the children is an integral part of the educational experience at KLA Schools. Our goal is not simply to build a strong, warm and nurturing connection with each child, but to extend that connection to our community of parents. By working in a collaborative group setting, children learn critical life skills such as compromise, reasoning, respect for others’ opinions and enhancement of their sense of community. Through these partnerships, children benefit from experiencing many of the same principles at home that they do in school and thrive with this consistency. Teachers also offer frequent support to our families and our communities through transparency and by being a source of information about educating a whole child and the various aspects of development.
Photo Tour
We would like to welcome you to your digital tour of KLA Schools. From the moment you walk into any of our locations, you will know that you are in a KLA School. Each one of our schools has a modern feel and design unlike any other. Features such as wood floors and furniture, large picture windows for all classrooms and offices, large corridors and classroom sizes, soft tone colors, and play soft furniture brought in from Italy are some of the visual components that makes KLA stand out from all the rest.
Click the photo to launch the tour.
Community Service
As part of our philosophy and educational approach, we believe it is essential to make visible that fact that each child knows and understands that we are all different and can co-exist peacefully. We have different ways of thinking, a fact we embrace. In fulfilling this vision, KLA Schools has formed relationships with charitable organizations within each of the communities it exists. Read more about our involvement with the following foundations:
His House Children’s Home is a private, faith-based non-profit organization dedicated to restoring joy to the lives of children from newborn to 18 years of age. Since it was established in 1989, His House has been offering safe, caring homes to abused, abandoned and neglected children in South Florida. Children and families of KLA Schools of Brickell organize a variety of ways to support this cause throughout the year.
Each year KLA Schools of Brickell participates in fundraising through the Camillus House Organization. Serving the South Florida community since 1960, this is a non-profit organization that provides humanitarian services to men, women and children who are poor and homeless. We ask our families to help us by providing basic non-perishable necessities to these people in our community.
The Pajama Program provides new pajamas and new books to children in need, many who are waiting and hoping to be adopted. Some of the children this organization serves are living with their families below the poverty level, in desperate need of food, clothing and shelter. Each year around the winter holidays, KLA Schools of Brickell collects books and pajamas for children from infants to six years old.
Ecuador Earthquake Relief
In 2016 KLA Schools of Brickell supported Ecuador’s earthquake victims by collecting non-perishable items, blankets, water and more.
Hurricane Maria Relief
In 2017 KLA Elementary students collected donations for Puerto Rico after it was devastated by Hurricane Maria.
Zoo Run 5k and Zoo Kids Dash
In 2017 KLA Schools sponsored two the Zoo Run 5k and Zoo Kids Dash which benefits the West Kendall Baptist Hospital and Zoo Miami Foundation. As well as the Miami Children’s Health Foundation 5K Run/Walk which benefits the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.