Piedmont Inclusive Preschool

Kerstie Mulligan (Lead Teacher) is a credentialed California teacher with an Education Specialist Credential. She has been the lead preschool teacher for PUSD since 2018 and worked as a paraeducator prior to that.  She holds an Associate’s Degree in Early Childhood Education and a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Development with an Early Childhood Development option.  She has worked in several local preschools including Piedmont Play School, Linda Beach Preschool, and Piedmont Recreation Department’s Tot Zone.  Kerstie enjoys incorporating art, music, and sensory exploration into the daily preschool schedule.  She believes in meeting each child where they are at, creating a positive and fun environment that children enjoy, explicitly teaching prosocial behaviors and shaping them with positive feedback, offering children choices, providing structure and routines, and teaching children to advocate for their needs and learn age-appropriate independence.  She has two young children who attend Piedmont schools.

Carrie Rodrigues (Preschool Program Specialist) is a school psychologist who is passionate about early childhood education and inclusion.  She currently works for both PUSD and for the California Early Childhood Special Education Network (CalECSE), as a member of its leadership team.  Carrie was selected as the CalECSE Exemplar Lead for Assessment Practices in 2022.  She is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP), a Licensed Educational Psychologist (LEP), and she has given presentations to thousands around California on behalf of CalECSE on best practices in Early Childhood Education.  She has served as the program specialist for PUSD’s preschool program and has provided weekly social-emotional lessons in the classroom since 2014.  She is mother to two wonderful children.

Patricia has worked for the district for 20 years supporting hundreds of students in general education and special education settings.  She has worked at Linda Beach preschool and supported the PUSD Early Intervention Preschool Program since 2015.  She has two children: her son attends Piedmont Middle School while her daughter attends UC Santa Cruz.

PIP is fortunate to have experienced and highly trained support staff in the classroom who have years of combined experience working with young children.  We typically have ratios no higher than 1:4 adults to children.