After a detailed and intensive interview process, The Children’s School hired Elena Jaime as director of Lower School (Early Learning – grade 3) and Paul Oberman as director of Upper School (grades 4 – 8). Elena and Paul will officially join the Wolf Pack on Fri., July 1, 2022.
Elena Jaime, Director of Lower School
Elena is a passionate, progressive educator with eight years of lower school leadership experience and fourteen years of experience teaching preschool through grade 3 students.
In her most recent positions at The Brick Church School and The Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School (LREI), Elena supervised faculty, overseeing their continuous development through evaluation, coaching, and professional development. She understands the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical development of our lower school students. As an anti-bias educator who seeks to create reflective learning communities in which the needs of all members are met, Elena recognizes the importance of children being their authentic selves and seeing themselves reflected in the curriculum and classroom so they feel emotionally safe at school, allowing them to grow as learners and members of the community. In addition, Elena, a graduate of Bank Street College of Education in Manhattan and a member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and North American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA), brings the expertise needed to strengthen our commitment to play-based and project-based learning in our younger grades.
I look forward to welcoming Elena, her wife, Kristina, and their three children, Zoë, Luna, and Juno, when they move from Brooklyn, NY to Atlanta to join the Wolf Pack!
Paul Oberman, Director of Upper School
Dr. Paul Oberman has served many roles at several middle and high schools, most notably as assistant junior high coordinator at Paideia and head of the middle school at Pace where he established a middle school with its own identity.
With more than 30 years of experience in education, Paul prioritizes “establishing a culture of care and commitment in all constituencies,” while also focusing on innovation and change management as he works with faculty and staff to advance our Middle Grades (grades 6 – 8) program. As an experienced educator, he also supports faculty through evaluation, coaching, and professional development, helping them reach their goals so that students can thrive; he recognizes the importance of building inclusive classroom, grade-level, and divisional communities through deliberate and reflective efforts, ensuring that each student is seen, feels supported, and is reflected in the curriculum. He believes in TCS’s philosophy of “hard fun” through project-based learning and the importance of our students asking questions and finding topics that engage them.
Continuing the work and leadership of current Director of Upper School Allen Broyles, Paul will begin a process to assess and ultimately strengthen our middle school program, as we further implement our project-based learning model to incorporate subject-area standards with the skills our students need in their high school and college years – critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication.
Paul is the current head of school at Robert M. Beren Academy in Houston. He and his wife, Rebecca, are looking forward to returning to Atlanta to be closer to friends and family.
Welcome to the Wolf Pack, Elena and Paul!
