Administration

Happy Sayre-McCord, Head of School
Happy Sayre-McCord has been a part of the MCHD community since 1990, when her son Rob enrolled as a three-year-old. When her second son, Thomas, enrolled, Happy became Carrie Benoit Salemi's assistant, and for 8 glorious years experienced the Montessori method as it is practiced by a master teacher at MCHD. Simultaneously, Happy’s husband, Geoff Sayre-McCord, was the before-school care provider on the pre-school playground for nine years. Throughout that decade, Happy served on the Board of Directors and/or many Board committees. After leaving the classroom in 2001 to redirect her attention to the care of her children and aging parents, she quickly discovered that staying away from MCHD was impossible. Happy feels privileged now to return to MCHD as the Head of School, where she is working closely with teachers, parents, and staff to ensure the continued health and vitality of MCHD. A native of Washington, DC, Happy has an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh and double-majored in Biology and Philosophy at Oberlin College. In her life before Montessori, she was in Commercial Lending at Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh and then worked as a consultant for non-profit organizations. She has served on Boards of various not-for-profit institutions for most of the past 25 years.

Tammy Squires, Business Manager
Tammy became a member of the MCHD community in 1995 when her oldest son was in Preschool. Two years later her family moved to Asia, and it was MCHD that brought her back to North Carolina in 2000 when her family repatriated. Both her children are now MCHD alumni. Throughout her years as an MCHD parent, Tammy has served on many committees, volunteered in the classrooms, substituted, and served as Interim Administrator for one year before becoming the Business Manager. She attended Waterson Business College and Northern Kentucky University.

Ashlin Confer, Administrative Assistant
Ashlin serves MCHD and LHAS as our indispensible Administrative Assistant. Ashlin comes to us from Pittsburgh where she received a degree in Communication and French from Chatham College. She has experience in administration and management, and comes from a family of educators. Ashlin is pursuing a Masters degree in French Literature at NCSU, and is an enthusiast of Maria Montessori’s philosophy, E.E.Cummings’ poetry, and good coffee!