Laura Maurer is from New York, where she grew up and went to school. She went to college at Lafayette in Pennsylvania where she majored in Psychology. From there, Maurer spent one year in Baltimore doing an AmeriCorps program.
After this, Maurer went to NYU where she earned a degree in Elementary Education and Special Education. She then taught in the city at P.S. 163, where she spent the entirety of her teaching career. During this time, she taught 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade as a co-teacher for general and special education students. While she was teaching, she worked towards and earned her degree in administration.
After receiving this degree Maurer served as an Instructional Coach for 3 years before her family made the decision to move to Michigan. In Michigan, she spent 2 years as an Assistant Principal at Lindemann Elementary, and then a year as a Dean at Taylor Exemplar Academy. Now she is in her first year as Principal at Childs Elementary – Schools.
About Childs
Maurer describes Childs as a community school. She said, “It’s a true community school, so people walk from across the street to get here, which is lovely, and then we also have buses that get kids from all over…The community is very involved.”x
At Childs, there are about 500 students ranging from Young 5s through 5th grade. Although Maurer doesn’t have an assistant principal, she is supported by a behavior interventionist and a special education lead that helps the role feel more balanced. Maurer also said that as a first year Principal, the entire team at Childs has helped her feel welcome and supported in her new role.
Joys of being principal
Maurer said that she has worked as a paraprofessional, classroom teacher, assistant principal and now principal in a school and has greatly enjoyed every role.
She said, “Since I started in the classroom as a paraprofessional, I kind of always have had this thought of like, how does this lead to the next impact that can be had? So now I’m working with one or two kids, how can I impact more? And then as a classroom teacher and I’m like oh, I love this. But how can I impact more? … so I’ve kind of a desire to reach as far as I can with making change.”
Maurer said another part of the role that she loves is connecting with the students in her building. She says that she probably gets close to 100 hugs everyday from kids, which always is a bright spot in her say. Maurer also has a great appreciation for her staff. She said, “I love being able to work with staff that are so hungry to help these kids and work with these kids. They inspire me, you know, to get in the classroom, to see what they are working on.”
Goals for the school
Maurer describes this first year as always being something new for her to experience. Currently, her goal is to continue to learn about her new role and hone her craft. Maurer told us that there are a lot of new initiatives that are being implemented in her building. She strives to be a support for her teachers to learn these new initiatives and help them to be even more effective in their new curriculum.
For her students, Maurer always has a goal to help them develop as people. She said, “…watching them figure out how to problem solve with one another, watching a kid make a different and better decision than they made the day before, or seeing a light bulb go on. Like those kinds of human moments are goals for me.”
Maurer said in these moments she tries to celebrate the small and big achievements for her students.
Personal life
Maurer lives with her husband Brad and her two children Charlie and Wilder. Maurer describes her children as ‘the most beautiful humans.’ She said that because her kids are still young much of her life outside of school revolves around their school, events and friends. However, Maurer says that she has found a strong network of parent friends from this. She also loves yoga, reading and competitive sports.
