Play First, Learn Forever: Katelyn Clark Named New Director of Congregation Albert's Early Childhood Center
By Austin Curtis
New leader, familiar face.
After more than a quarter century under one leader, Congregation Albert’s Early Childhood Center is beginning a new chapter. The center has named Katelyn Clark as its new director.
Clark joined the Early Childhood Center in January 2021. After serving as a teacher and later assistant director, she officially assumed the director's role on June 1, succeeding longtime director Dale Cooperman, who led the program for 26 years.
After teaching at several APS schools and working as a kindergarten teacher, Clark said she found her place at Congregation Albert. “I really found my home here at Congregation Albert,” the new director said. For Clark, becoming director was never about a new title. It was about advocacy.
“Being a teacher, I know what it’s like to feel supported and what it’s like to not feel supported,” she said. “I wanted to ensure I can be an advocate not just for the kids but also for educators.”
This summer, nearly 60 children are enrolled in the center's sold-out program. During the school year, enrollment typically sits around 50 students ages 2 through 5. One of the center's defining features is its long-standing transitional kindergarten program, giving families an additional year to prepare children for elementary school if needed.
“That’s one of the most unique things about our school,” Clark said. “Not a lot of early childhood centers offer a program like that. What makes us most special is the philosophy we follow and the curriculum that we use.”
The ECC of Congregation Albert was established in 1982. The center's philosophy is to make each child's first school experience both joyful and secure. At the heart of the program is a play-based philosophy, allowing students to not only learn but enjoy learning.
Clark said combining learning with play helps children develop a lasting love of education.
“While they are playing and learning, they have that much more fun doing it,” she said. “Our main goal for every single kid is to have a love of learning when they walk out of here. That’s going to take them and carry them through the years to come and make them that much more successful.”
The program has earned recognition as one of Albuquerque's top early childhood centers, winning Albuquerque's Best in the City award and finishing among the top five in each of the past four years.
Clark now inherits a program with an established reputation — and the responsibility of carrying it forward — but she isn't looking to reinvent what her predecessor spent 26 years building. Instead, she hopes to build on it.
“That’s my mission — to keep being honored and recognized in those ways,” she said. “I’m really motivated to strengthen what we have here. I want to do whatever we can to take it to that next level.”
Beyond early childhood education, the center serves as a gathering place for families seeking both community and connection. While children learn through a play-based curriculum that introduces Jewish values, culture and traditions, the program welcomes families of all faiths. Today, roughly half of its families are Jewish and half are not, creating an environment where children learn about different cultures and build relationships across backgrounds from an early age.
Clark believes introducing children to different traditions at an early age helps build understanding long before misconceptions can take root.
“We’re open to all faiths and families, about half of our families come from a Jewish background and the other half do not,” she said. “What I found with that is that helps minimize the ignorance and learning about all the holidays, traditions and Shabbat. It really opens their eyes and brings communities together. It instills in kids at such a young age that there’s no right or wrong way to be — we all have our own backgrounds and it’s the way we behave and carry ourselves.”
For Clark, though, the most meaningful moments aren't found in lesson plans or art projects. They're found each morning when children walk through the front door. “It is truly every morning seeing kids smile when coming in and upset to come home,” she said. “That means we did our job right. To be able to see all their creativity come to light because they are given the opportunity to do so really is what motivates me to come back each day.”
Whether they're preparing children for kindergarten, supporting teachers in the classroom or helping families find community, Clark hopes every child leaves the ECC with the confidence to succeed — and a lifelong love of learning.
“It’s going back to that love of learning and that they’re capable of doing anything,” she said. “If they come with that love of learning to the next school, then it’s going take off a lot of the burden on them.”
Austin Curtis, a student at Cornell University majoring in American Studies with a minor in International Relations, this summer is a feature writer for the NM Jewish Journal and a freelance sports writer for the Albuquerque Journal.
A generous gift from the David Specter Shalom House Board has enabled the New Mexico Jewish Journal to bring on student writers and expand its coverage of community events.
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