St. Boniface's new director has big plans for preschool

The office of St. Boniface Preschool’s new director, Sarah Schebel, has fresh sea-foam-green walls, a desk, cabinet and bookshelf. It’s also equipped with a rocking chair and two child-size chairs.

“I’m missing some furniture,” she says. “I’m decorating the teachers’ lounge — they now have a place to put their feet up.”

Turns out, the sea foam-green walls and the teachers' lounge aren’t the only new things Schebel has been working on; the third-generation Sarasotan has hit the ground running with new discount prices for Siesta Key Village employees, parenting tips via web updates named “Thursday Thoughts” and a joint partnership with The Out-of-Door Academy. She’s also planning on joining the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce.

“I’m really honing in on being part of the community,” says Schebel.

Before joining the St. Boniface team, Schebel worked for 12 years at Forty Carrots Family Center as parenting educator, preschool teacher and assistant director. Born and raised in the Arlington Park neighborhood, Schebel says that she has seen Sarasota transform and grow into a family-friendly community, something she loves most about the area. When she graduated from the University of South Florida with a bachelor of arts in psychology, Schebel was the first woman on both sides of her family to graduate from college — a fact that has made her appreciate the value of a good education.
Schebel has made her priorities as the new director clear from the start:

“I always ask my kids, ‘What’s my job?’ and they say, ‘To keep us safe and happy.’”