Board of Directors

Veigh Mehan

Veigh Mehan is a licensed mental health counselor with a small private practice. She retired from SUNY Canton, where she served as Director of Accessibility Services and was a staff member in the campus Counseling Center. Veigh appreciates time with family, friends, and especially grandchildren. She also enjoys biking, hiking, snowshoeing, kayaking, and creating calligraphy artwork. Veigh joined the board in 2015.

Jan Rutella

Jan Rutella is an educator and a reading specialist in Potsdam, New York. Jan has taught high school GED preparation at Ogdensburg Correctional Facility, The St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center, and through BOCES Adult Education. Presently, Jan tutors dyslexic individuals in her private practice. Jan also administers informal diagnostic testing and provides support for parents as an advocate and school liaison. Jan has been on the board since 2012.

Rainbow Crabtree

Rainbow Crabtree joined the Little River board in 2025 after 21 years of small business ownership. She is passionate about building a community where people are excited to live, work, play, and learn. Both of her adult children attended LRCS. Rainbow expresses her own creativity through pressed flower art, cooking, music, and carpentry. Her favorite place to be is outdoors in any season.

Dulli Tengeler

Dulli Tengeler has been on the board since 1999. She is an organic vegetable farmer and member of the Birdsfoot Community. Little River students come to the gardens to experience vegetable growing. She has two cows and likes independent movies, singing, and meeting people. Her children went to Little River. Dulli is interested in keeping the school going for a long time and promoting its philosophy.

Ana Williams-Bergen

Ana Williams-Bergen leads North Country Public Radio's North Country at Work project, which explores the region's work history and contemporary economic landscape through photos and interviews. She graduated from Little River in 2019, completing her last year as an exchange student in Germany. Ana went on to attend Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, where she studied Global Development.

Ana is passionate about nonprofit work and has previously worked with the St. Lawrence Land Trust, GardenShare, and the North Country Children's Museum. She is on the board of the Potsdam Humane Society and volunteers as an ESL tutor at the Potsdam Library. In her free time, Ana enjoys long walks and helping out on her family's homestead.

Steve Molnar

Steve Molnar is the founder and director of the school and serves as the board president. Steve has forty-five years of experience working with children in small, independent, democratic schools. He enjoys camping, canoeing, swimming, watching movies, reading books, and actively works for social justice.