Former Faculty with Distinguished Service Inducted into the Perennial Pines Society

Hamden Hall Country Day School celebrated excellence under the pines with the induction of 10 beloved educators into the Perennial Pines Society Sept. 10. The honorees, each retired with 30-plus years of service, were honored at a celebration brunch held in the Lender Refectory. Collectively, they taught at Hamden Hall for more than 300 years!

            The school community was thrilled to have all 10 honorees in attendance. They included Michael Smith from Utah; Jane Scognamillo from outside Philadelphia; Sara Morris from Chapel Hill, N.C., and the other seven closer to home—Joanie Aceto, Louise Ciulla, Terry Deck, Martha Djang, Terry Porto, and Linae and Bob Schroeder.

            Head of School Bob Izzo lauded and inducted the honorees individually. He then unveiled the Perennial Pines Society plaques bearing their photographs and names that are on permanent display in the foyer of the Swain Library.

            “Thanks to all of you for your years of dedication and service to Hamden Hall,” Bob said. “You all made a difference in the lives of our students, their parents and families, contributing to the Hamden Hall experience through your values, your nurturing, your respect, and your love of teaching. You are all living legends at Hamden Hall. Congratulations!”

 

            Joanie Aceto is part of Hamden Hall’s legendary Fab Five—a group of Lower School teachers who retired in 2016.

            Joanie was joined at the 2017 Perennial Pines Society Celebration on Sept. 10 by her husband, Robert, their son, Christopher, their daughter, Kara, and her husband, Joseph LaDore. Joanie has four grandchildren, Skye, 13, Shiloh, 10, Maddie, 14, and Dinny, 11.

            Joanie was with us 31 years, teaching third grade.

            She said that the most rewarding part of those years was not only working with children in the classroom, but also continually learning from them.

            As much as Joanie did the teaching, she was reminded by her students that it was important to have a sense of humor and that making a mistake or having a disagreement was not the “end of the world.”

            Of course it should come as no surprise that Joanie’s longtime teaching partner in the third grade, Linae Schroeder, also a Perennial Pines Society honoree, kept Joanie here for more than three decades.

            Joanie tells us that she misses Linae, misses us, and misses the hugs from the youngsters and the connections she made with her students and their families. Joanie says that building relationships with parents over the years was always gratifying.

            Joanie, who has earned a reputation for creating playful women’s undergarments (bras!) to help raise money for cancer research, said that Halloween was hands-down her favorite school holiday.And for that reason, our Lower School Halloween Parade was among her favorite days of the year. Whether it was dressing up like a California Raisin or a contestant in the Miss America pageant, she and Linae always pulled out all the stops.

            Joanie said the Fab Five sendoff during the last week of school in 2016 was definitely a meaningful end to her long career at Hamden Hall.

Joanie enjoyed the highlights—the decorated doors, memory jars, and their favorite foods for lunch. She also noted thatthe “redo” of Cinderella for the third grade play, written and directed by our own Kathie Harris, was hard to keep Joanie from keeping a dry eye, especially when the children sang Fairy Tales Can Come True.

Louise Ciulla was joined at the 2017 Perennial Pines Society Celebration on Sept. 10 by her husband, Robert. The couple has two sons, John and David. John is married, and he and his wife, Erin, and their two children, Gigi and Chris, live in Larchmont, N.Y. David lives in Manhattan.

            Louise is one of those quintessential Hamden Hall faculty members who retires, but never really leaves. When Louise officially “stopped working” in 2002, she had enjoyed a career in Lower School teaching fourth grade, and she also did a stint in kindergarten.Soon after her retirement, however, Louise returned to us wearing many different hats. Primarily, she taught French to first- and second-graders and also served as a substitute teacher.

            Louise said that there is a one-word answer as to why she enjoyed working at Hamden Hall: Colleagues! Louise described her fellow educators as supportive, creative, and positive people who were happy to share ideas, rooms for special occasions, and laughs! For Louise, Hamden Hall created an environment that supported creativity.

            Louise, like so many faculty, had a soul mate among her peers—fellow fourth-grade teacher Joyce Mack. Besides a daily dose of professional camaraderie, Joyce put together a “wonderful” album for Louise upon her retirement that captured her long career at Hamden Hall. It’s something Louise cherishes.

            When asked about her funniest moment, Louise said that in retrospect, it wasn’t funny at all. She got locked in a Lower School bathroom—a very small space—and stayed there until Joanie Aceto and Linae Schroeder came to her rescue.

            Overall, Louise said that when she thinks of Hamden Hall, and she thinks of her students, she is forever impressed with the creativity of her young pupils who wrote poetry and prose that was perceptive, touching, and beautiful. Louise also spoke about the students’ sense of wonderment, and how she was always mindful that it is in fourth grade that students seem to start making connections between themselves and the outside world.

 

            Although Terry Deck and his wife, Mary Jo, live locally in Hamden, their attendance at the 2017 Perennial Pines Society Celebration on Sept. 10 was no easy feat! The couple had just spent 10 days in Italy, arriving back into New York City at midnight the night before! Their trip, by the way, was a treat from their daughter, Casey, who had attended Hamden Hall for part of her education. It was a time that Terry fondly recalls—as both a Hamden Hall parent and faculty member.

            Terry retired from Hamden Hall in 2015, officially with 29 years under his belt, followed by two solid years as a substitute teacher.

            For folks who knew Terry as a colleague, teacher, and friend, they also knew that Terry was larger than life! Yes, he was a teacher—ninth-grade English at Hamden Hall for all those years, along with coaching our boys’ baseball team.

            But it’s what Terry did prior to joining our school community that made him legendary among his students and peers. Terry was a professional baseball player, professional singer and actor, writer, and let’s not forget bartender and taxi cab driver. Terry’s good nature in weaving his life’s experiences into the classroom is what made him so endearing to his students.

            For Terry, he says the pleasure was all his, as he spent three decades at Hamden Hall because of the congeniality of his colleagues and the receptiveness of the students he taught. His finest hour, he said, was when students would tell Terry that he was making a difference in their lives. Those conversations, he said, were priceless.

            When you ask Terry about the funniest moment he ever experienced at Hamden Hall, he said he can’t pinpoint just one, as there were simply too many! Thus, for Terry, teaching was fun, and his attitude translated into an enjoyable experience for his students.

            Our school community was always excited when Terry would share his gift of singing with us. Among his many performances, he especially noted being cast in The Fantasticks on the Hamden Hall stage with his colleague Bob Schroeder by his side, and under the direction of Michael Smith. Terry also performed extraordinary duets with Mary Jo, also a professional singer who shared her amazing talent and time with us throughout her husband’s tenure at Hamden Hall.

 

            Martha Djang was joined at the 2017 Perennial Pines Society Celebration on Sept. 10 by her husband, Fred; her mother, Mina Terry; and her children, Leslie, Peter, and Rob, along with Rob’s children, Mia, 9, and Austin, 5. Martha has been called an "unsung hero" at Hamden Hall, as she worked quietly in our school library--across three divisions. Martha started at Hamden Hall 30 years ago as a fourth-grade assistant and worked part-time in the library while completing a Master's in Library Science. She was named Lower School librarian in 1988. She moved to the Upper School library in 1992, and in time, she and her library colleague Jane Lewis covered all three divisions--PreSchool to Grade 12. Eventually, Martha found her way back to the Lower School library, where she remained until her retirement in 2016. Throughout her career, Martha shared her love of literature and reading with students of all ages. Her efforts with our younger students set the stage for their love of learning in the years that followed.

            Like other honorees at the Perennial Pines Society celebration, Martha enjoyed sharing her Hamden Hall experiences with her children. Her daughter, Leslie, worked in our summer programs and camp during her college years. Peter attended our school for grades six through eight, and Rob was here for grades two through 12, graduating in 1998.

            Martha was also among the 2016 Fab Five. And like so many of her Fab Five peers, Martha said it was her colleagues and students that kept her at Hamden Hall 30 years. She said she loved coming to work everyday and thoroughly enjoyed the professional and personal discussions she had with her colleagues. Among them, Martha noted, are Louise Ciulla, Sheree Dobra, Larry Kingsbury, Mary Lou Thetford, Jane Lewis, Mitzi Garvey, Sarah Ludwig, and Kathy McNeiece.

            During Martha’s tenure at Hamden Hall, she saw the role of school libraries change—much of it related to technology. However to Martha, a library is still a library and a place where students come to reflect and learn and read!

            When Martha reflected on some of her more tender moments at Hamden Hall, she thought of the late coach and teacher Carol Jones who lost a long battle with cancer a few years ago. Martha said that throughout her daily routine of being a librarian, she would stop and take pause for the courage Carol showed in facing a devastating diagnosis. Martha recalled that Carol spent hours in the library making plans to go into nursing, and that she was always optimistic and thinking of others. Martha says that Carol was an inspiration for her and a person she will always treasure.

            As for the students, Martha enjoyed a unique perspective watching youngsters move from PreSchool and PreKindergarten through Lower School and onto Middle School and then to Upper School. Watching those students prosper and grow was a source of joy to Martha. And Martha’s unwavering calm and guidance was likewise a joy to them!

 

            Sara Morris was joined at the 2017 Perennial Pines Society Celebration on Sept. 10 by her daughter, Emily Davies, who attended Hamden Hall for 10 years and is now back in the neighborhood.

            Sara joked that she means that literally as Emily and her husband, Scott Davies, moved around the corner to Carlton Street as Scott started a teaching job at Quinnipiac University this fall. Emily and Scott have two children, George, 2 and ½, and 6-month-old Fern.

            Sara and her husband, Ian, also have a son, David, who attended Hamden Hall for nine years. David and his wife, Virginia, also have two children, Keegan, 2 and ½, and Lana, nine months old. David’s family recently moved to Syracuse, N.Y., where David has begun his three-year residency program as an ER doctor at SUNY Upstate. Virginia has exchanged her job as an attorney for staying home with her two children.

            As for Sara, she and Ian moved to Chapel Hill, N.C., after Sara retired in 2016. She was among the Fab Five, and she held the record for 37 years at Hamden Hall. Now, that’s a lot of toga parties!

            What kept Sara here for nearly four decades? In her own words: “Selling Latin as a fascinating subject.”Sara also loved teaching Emily and David, as well as so many other students who were children of her friends. And she liked teaching across our three divisions of Lower, Middle, and Upper School where Sara said she always enjoyed autonomy in the classroom.

            Regardless of the students’ ages, Sara loved seeing students get excited about language.With that excitement came a lot of serious study, but Sara also noted that there was a lot of “hilarity” going on as she always strived to make Latin fun.

            Beyond her students, Sara always treasured her colleagues who she described as reliable, supportive, intelligent, affectionate and funny. Their camaraderie was enhanced, Sara maintains, with daily great lunches in the cafeteria.When Sara left us two years ago, she said she took the “the hugs” from her Hamden Hall family with her. And therefore, we are always in her heart.

            As for a few personal anecdotes, Sara says she will always cherish the memory of listening to her daughter, Emily, at age 5, singing Castle on a Cloud at a year-end concert, and watching her son, David, playing the part of Tom Sawyer while his best friend, Adam Riccio, played Huck Finn. Sara also has a vague memory of doing a little “performing” of her own—dressing up like a trash bag and dancing across the Hamden Hall stage. We’ll have to look for pictures of that one!

 

            Terry Porto was joined at the 2017 Perennial Pines Society Celebration on Sept. 10 by her husband and a Hamden Hall trustee, Carl Sr., and their three Hamden Hall alumni and lawyer sons, Carl II, Class of 1987, Joe, Class of 1989, and Mark, Class of 1994. Also daughters-in-law Kimberly Gold Porto, Class of 1987, and Valerie Porto, along with Terry’s grandchildren, Billy, a Hamden Hall junior, and Lexi, Tori, and Joe Porto. Missing was Carl Porto III, our 2016 Hamden Hall graduate now in Williams College. Terry’s other family members at the brunch included her sister, Rae Aceto and brother-in-law, Tony Aceto, her brother, Mike Annunziata, and his friend, Dorinda Mosca.

            Terry is among the Fab Five and has a deep respect for her colleagues and enormous affection for the students she taught over her 31 years as a first-grade teacher. Terry best describes Hamden Hall as being the “perfect fit” for her professional and personal life—enjoying her three sons on campus for many years, only to be topped with two grandsons who followed.

            Terry said the faculty and administration were always warm, caring and very supportive. But most importantly, they were friends. She noted that teaching at Hamden Hall was always rewarding because there was always the opportunity to try something new and different.

            Like Joanie Aceto, Terry has fond and fun memories of being a California Raisin on Halloween, along with vying for the crown in the Miss America pageant. Amongst the fun, it was the students who made all the difference for Terry. She said that nothing surpassed the experience of watching her youngsters reach that “learning moment” when their eyes would sparkle, knowing what they had just achieved.

            Terry also had those tender moments, when a little one was upset and crying. Resolving the concerns was one thing. But the big reward—a first-grader’s smile and hug.

 

            Linae Schroder was accompanied at 2017 Perennial Pines Society Celebration on Sept. 10 by her husband, Bob Schroeder, also an honoree.

            So when we think of Linae, we think Lower School, third grade, and her partner Joanie Aceto. Linea retired in 2016 after a 36-year career, clearly making her own mark at Hamden Hall. Linae was also among the Fab Five.

            Like so many other Perennial Pines Society honorees, Linae will tell you that among her biggest joys was teaching her own children who are Hamden Hall alumni. Geoff graduated in 1993. He and his wife, Cara, live in Longmont, Colo., with their two daughters, Sena, 8, and Cleo, 3.

Linae notes that Geoff followed in his parents’ footsteps, choosing the career path of teacher. Geoff teaches classes in technology, video production, online design, 3D printing, and environmental advocacy in grades six to eight. Linae added this is new for Geoff and “he's pretty excited because he's had lots of freedom to create his own curriculum.”

            Linea and Bob’s daughter, Samantha “Sam” Jooste, Class of 1995, lives in Pretoria, South Africa, with her husband, Luther, and their three children, Ben 10, Tristan, 8, and Megan 6.Linae reports that Sam is keeping busy “wrangling” her three children and somehow manages to freelance write online in between soccer and field hockey schedules.

            Since Linae’s retirement two years ago, she and Bob have visited both children.  They’ve truly been on the road, in the air, on the water, and we’re waiting for the travel book to come out!

            Upon her retirement, Linae had a lot of great stories to share about her time at Hamden Hall. But she identifies the most gratifying moments came when she was working with students and suddenly she would see that “spark of excitement” when the youngsters achieved an accomplishment.

            Linae, like Joanie, always had a great laugh on Halloween as the third-grade teaching duo always dressed up as a pair (Sonny & Cher was among the highlights!). But Linae also recalls an afternoon when she alone had to fend off a “tom” turkey running wild in the playground while her young charges were enjoying recess.

            Beyond the third-grade classroom, Linae enjoyed all of her colleagues. And in the Lower School, she said, there was a special bond of always being there for each other, always ready and available to help each other out.

 

            Bob Schroeder was accompanied at the 2017 Perennial Pines Society Celebration on Sept. 10 by his wife, Linae, also an honoree. So much of what Linae had said about Bob’s family spoke to his own Hamden Hall experience. And like other honorees, it was such a cherished moment when he presented diplomas to his to Hamden Hall children.

            As director of the Upper and Middle Schools for much of his career at Hamden Hall, Bob found himself in the challenging role of student disciplinarian. Bob retired in 2012 after 35 years at Hamden Hall. Prior to his leadership in the Upper and Middle Schools, Bob wore many hats since he first started in 1977. He was a Middle School history teacher, ninth-grade English teacher, director of guidance, and varsity hockey coach.

            Throughout the years, Bob said he enjoyed “good bosses, good colleagues, good students, and the freedom to be independent.” On a personal note again, Bob cherished coaching his son, Geoff, in hockey and performing with his daughter, Sam, in The Fantasticks.

            Beyond his professional accomplishments, Bob was also known for his sense of humor. He shared one story that illustrates how he could laugh at himself. It happened while he was chaperoning a seventh-grade trip to Washington, D.C.  Unbeknownst to Bob, he made a somewhat threatening announcement to his students, which was accidentally broadcast to the entire train.  And we quote him: "I'm sick of your behavior, put your butts in a seat now, or I'll throw you off the train while it's moving!" Seconds later, an ashen-faced conductor came running into the car to tell Bob that passengers throughout the train had heeded his warning and went rushing to any available seat.

            We miss Bob’s sense of humor at Hamden Hall and all of his great stories—even his tales about catching big fish!

            We thank Bob for sharing in his pride of Linae, whom he noted gave him an especially cherished memory when the yearbook was dedicated to her in 2012.

 

            Jane Scognamillo was joined at the 2017 Perennial Pines Society Celebration on Sept. 10 by her husband, Fred.

            For Jane, “Thirty years at Hamden Hall meant 30 Septembers of a new group of children, parents and siblings to cherish, nurture and love.”

            Jane joined Hamden Hall in 1978 and retired in 2008. And over the years, Jane watched many of her young students move on from Lower to Middle to Upper School.

            One of Jane’s most cherished memories occurred at a Hamden Hall commencement when the valedictorian stated that everything he learned at Hamden Hall, he learned in kindergarten. Now that’s laying the foundation for lifelong learning!

            Another young woman, at the age of 18, let Jane know that her kindergarten lessons during “show and tell” still influenced her life. Although Jane left us in 2008, she, like so many others here today, remains in touch with her former students!

 

            Now that Jane and Fred moved outside Philadelphia to Bryn Mawr, she is happy to have former Hamden Hallers pay her visits, catch up on their accomplishments, and even stay for a good meal.

            Last year, Jane was reunited with many former students and parents at the wedding of our Trustee Barbara De Natale’s daughter. The reunion, we understand, was very meaningful to all in attendance.

            After Jane retired from Hamden Hall, she worked for Haskins Lab and her former Hamden Hall colleague, Evelyn Russo, in the Stratford Public Schools’ literacy program. Jane shared the job with our Hamden Hall Trustee and alumna Maria Esposito Prota, Class of 1982, which Jane described as “the perfect retirement job.” When Fred retired in 2011, Jane and Fred moved to Bryn Mawr. Jane reports that she still does some private tutoring and spends time in Philadelphia’s inner city where she mentors children, work she finds extremely rewarding.

            Jane and Fred live near their daughter, Beth Scognamillo Attig, Hamden Hall Class of 1985, and her husband, Brian, who reside in nearby Merion Station.The couple has two sons, Cooper James, 18, who is a freshman at Wake Forest University (his father’s alma mater) and is on a full four-year academic scholarship. Duncan Sinclair, 16, is a junior at Harriton High School where he plays varsity baseball and is a member of the Debate Team.

            Jane recounts that Beth (HH salutatorian) started out as a French Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania but decided on a more practical career path. She became a nurse using her French to help translate for her Canadian patients on the liver transplant floor. While her health issues stalled her career goals, she returned to school and received her nurse practitioner license from Penn in 2012. She now works in the sleep clinic at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Brian works as a market researcher in the medical field.

            Jane’s son, Christian, Hamden Hall Class of 1987, is working in San Francisco with Genentech Pharmaceutical. Christian lived and worked in Bryn Mawr for two years but found “the lure of California to difficult to ignore.” While working at Endo Pharmaceutical, Christian became an expert on governmental pricing. Because of this, Genentech offered him a job in San Francisco and “the rest is history.” “We are fortunate to be able to spend the majority of each summer in San Francisco. It has become our second home.”

            In looking back over her three decades at Hamden Hall, Jane has many stories to tell.

            Among them is one that reveals a moment of lightheartedness. It occurred during lunch, one of Jane槉s favorite times of day that took place in her classroom. It was a special time when her students would sit around and leisurely share their take on life.

            One day the discussion turned to heaven, home to angels, verses hell, where one child firmly stated that that is where 槩the devil lives underground.樉 After a thoughtful pause, another student chimed in that he found that very odd, because just the day before he had been in the subway in New York City, and he was quite sure that he didn槉t see any devils living down there!

            Funny moments, tender moments, cherished memories, and 30 years of students, families, and colleagues. For Jane, those are the hallmarks of her Hamden Hall career. She noted that the Sept. 10 celebration was the first time she had been back to Hamden Hall since her retirement, and we were all very happy to see her!

 

            It was challenging to honor our legendary theater director and drama teacher Michael Smith without his 槩work wife樉 and 槩real wife,樉 Mary Jane, at his side! Michael made the trip from Utah solo to attend the 2017 Perennial Pines Society Celebration on Sept. 10, as Mary Jane stayed behind. Upon their joint retirement in 2015 as a theater-teaching duo, the couple moved to Orem, Utah, to be closer to two of their three Hamden Hall alumni children.

            During their tenure here, where Michael directed the Upper School productions and Mary Jane directed and choreographed  the Middle School and sixth-grade shows, their impact on three decades of students is hard to measure. From one show to the next, one year to the next, one decade to the next, Michael Smith encouraged hundreds of students to get up on stage and perform橩regardless of their level of talent. Whether it was cast or crew, the students gained confidence and gleaned lessons in teamwork and leadership that would serve them in all walks of life, long after they graduated from Hamden Hall.

            Michael acknowledged that what kept him here for 30 years was the fact that he worked side by side with Mary Jane, doing what they both loved橩creating theater! They set very high standards and raised the bar that has left an indelible mark on the Hamden Hall theater department today.

            Michael would call it all a labor of love. And he says that Hamden Hall provided him with exceptional job security, great benefits, a great working environment and a place where he and Mary Jane truly called home. They watched their three children be educated here.

            A quick family update: Gloriana Smith Miles, Class of 1999, and her husband, Joshua Miles, and their son, Reid, 4, live in Aurora, Illinois. Murphy Smith, Class of 2002, and his wife, Jylare, and their three children, Scarlett, 8, Magnolia, 4, and Huntington, 2, live in Orem where Mary Jane and Michael live. Not far from them is Heidi Smith Anderson, Class of 2008. Heidi and her husband, Kurt Anderson, and their two children, Marigold, 2, and Moses, 2 months old, live in Springville, Utah.

            The entire Smith family was here in the fall of 2014 when Michael and Mary Jane turned the tables and took to the stage, entertaining us with song and dance. And then at graduation 2015, they joined Terry and Mary Jo Deck and sang us all a goodbye.

            Ask Michael about one of his funniest moments at Hamden Hall and who槉s involved? Terry Deck and Bob Schroeder! As Michael remembers it: 槩During our production of The Fantasticks, Tom Robinson, who was playing the Old Indian, had an extended comic death scene. Well, one night during a performance he got a little carried away and as he moved to the back wall of the stage, he made a big motion to bang into the wall, and he knocked a 2 x 3 foot hole in the sheet rock. Bob Schroeder and Terry Deck were in that production and were seated on stage with their backs to the audience. Well, when Tom went through the wall, Terry and Bob started to laugh and couldn't stop. Their shoulders were bouncing up and down for quite a while.樉

            When asked to describe a tender moment, Michael says that槉s more challenging to do as his entire family was involved with the school.  However, he did share two. 1) 槩Our oldest Gloriana played Maria in our production of The Sound of Music. Our youngest Heidi played the youngest Von Trapp child, Gretel. There was a musical number with Gloriana in the middle of all the children and Heidi was sitting next to her and part of the song was delivered to Heidi. It was quite touching. 2) 槩I directed a play called The Boys Next Door about a group home for handicapped adults. Our son, Murphy played the most severely handicapped man, Lucien P. Smith.  There was one scene in the play where we get to see Lucien as he might have been, an articulate, intelligent man with all the promise in the world, but then he transitions back to the reality of his disability. Murphy never gave a better performance and that will always be a tender moment for me.樉

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