Shannon Powell

Shannon Powell grew up in Mesa, Arizona and has spent her entire career doing the one thing she loves most: teaching young children. She holds a degree in Elementary Education and a current Arizona teaching certification with an Early Childhood endorsement, and she has completed hundreds of hours of continuing education since earning her degree, including ECERS and CLASS certification, both of which are nationally recognized standards for early childhood program quality.

She founded TotSpot Preschool in Gilbert in 2008, and the reason she started it is the same reason she runs it the way she does. When her youngest daughter was preschool age, Shannon spent months researching local programs. As a trained educator, she knew exactly what a high-quality early childhood environment should look like. As a mother, she knew what she needed to feel confident handing her child over every morning. She couldn’t find a program that met both standards at a price that made sense for a real family. So she built one.

More than 15 years later, that founding intention is still the lens she uses for every decision at TotSpot: would this be good enough for my own child?

Credentials and Training

• Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education
• Current Arizona teaching certification with Early Childhood endorsement
• ECERS certified (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale)
• CLASS certified (Classroom Assessment Scoring System)
• Hundreds of hours of continuing education in early childhood development
• Quality First participant since 2021 at both TotSpot locations
• Former CASA volunteer (Court Appointed Special Advocate for children in foster care) for 7 years

Why She Started TotSpot

Shannon is a mother of five, four of whom are now adults. She has always believed that the most important education she could give her children started long before kindergarten, and that belief deepened after years of teaching in classrooms and watching children arrive underprepared for what was expected of them.

When she couldn’t find a preschool in the Gilbert area that combined genuine educational rigor with the warmth and affordability a family actually needs, she created TotSpot. The school opened in 2008 with a clear mission: give every child who walks through the door the kind of intentional, caring early education that sets them up for a lifetime of confident learning.

In 2021, Shannon became a grandmother for the first time when her grandson Oakley arrived, red-headed and, by all accounts, already full of personality. She will tell you that loving the early childhood years even more after becoming a grandma was not something she thought was possible. It turns out it was.

Her Commitment to the Community

Shannon believes a school is only as strong as its relationship with the community around it, and TotSpot has reflected that belief from the beginning. Over the years, she and the TotSpot community have raised funds for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the local Children’s Crisis Center, organizations that support foster children, local food banks, and two of their own TotSpot teachers who faced breast cancer diagnoses. Each of those efforts started with Shannon asking families to show up for someone who needed them, and each time, they did.

She also served as a CASA volunteer for seven years, advocating in court for children in Arizona’s foster care system. It is the kind of quiet, sustained commitment that tells you a great deal about the person behind the school.

A Little More Shannon

When she is not at TotSpot, Shannon is most likely outside. She grows an impressive range of edible plants in her garden, including rare, exotic, and tropical varieties, and has been known to bring homegrown bananas to school to share with her teachers and students. She also hikes, camps, and fishes, and describes herself as someone who is happiest when she is in some form of nature.

She has five children, four grandchildren in her growing family, and a genuine belief that the early years are the most important ones. Everything TotSpot does is built around that belief.