Each year, we inevitably need to say goodbye to beloved teachers and staff who have served our students well, and open our hearts and doors to the wonderful new faculty beginning their journey at our school. At the Rose Ceremony in June, we thanked Julie Scannell for the fine work she did as a class teacher in Grades 1 through 3 and more recently teaching skills with our Hickory Program and leading our Aftercare program. Mrs. Scannell is moving to Pennsylvania to take up the Grade 1 Class Teacher position at Kimberton Waldorf School next year. We also thanked Brian Scannell for his inspired teaching in the Humanities and amazing trip-leading in the high school these past 4 years. We thanked our nurse, Ms. Merideth Hoppe who is stepping back from nursing to spend time with her grandchildren—she will be missed by so many students! We thanked Ms. Sylvia Nordoff who has been teaching Eurythmy at Hawthorne Valley for the past 8 years bringing inspired choreography and beautiful movement to our lower school students. We thanked our Lower School intern Stevie Selby and our Early Childcare assistant Johanna Payne. Finally, we expressed our deep, deep, deep gratitude to long-time teacher Martina Müller, who will continue to mentor new Arts teachers but is stepping back from lead teaching Arts class in the High School. All of these teachers have left their mark on our school and impacted our students in more ways than we can express here. THANK YOU!
Incoming Faculty Members
We are very happy to announce some of our incoming new faculty and staff—we will feature them more in-depth in our fall Newsletter offerings.
Mr. Geoffrey Perry is joining our High School and Middle School faculty as an English teacher and learning support teacher following a career teaching humanities and health classes at various independent schools in New York City, most recently at the Dalton School. Mr. Perry studied Anthropology at Oxford University, has his Masters in Education from George Washington University and has spent time studying Arabic and living in Jordan.
Mr. Joshua Whisenhunt is joining our community from the Austin Waldorf High School and will be teaching math and humanities in the High School. He will also be offering afterschool SAT prep classes to our high school students. Mr. Whisenhunt completed the Waldorf High School Teacher Education Program at Sunbridge and has been teaching various Humanities Blocks while also running a private tutoring company tutoring in English, Math, Physics, and SAT preparation.
Ms. Katherine Patterson is joining Hawthorne Valley from the Saratoga Waldorf School where she has served for 5 years as an Art and Handwork teacher. She is completing her Waldorf Teacher training at Alkion and will be assisting in the Lower School while teaching art in the middle and high school. Katherine Patterson received a BFA from The Cooper Union and an MFA from New England College and has shown her artwork at various galleries in New York City and regionally. Her teaching experience includes ten years as an adjunct professor of drawing and design at SUNY Adirondack. Katherine is thrilled to become a part of the Hawthorne Valley community with her husband and two sons, who will attend the HVS Middle and High school.
Mr. Paul Nary comes to Hawthorne Valley to teach High School Spanish and support administrative needs in the High School, following a varied career in international relations including time working as a consultant for USAID and as a Regional Officer for UNICEF based in Nairobi, Kenya, and Geneva, Switzerland. Most recently, Paul has worked as the Director of Administration, Marketing and Communications at Potomac Crescent Waldorf School and as a Spanish teacher at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day School in Washington, DC. He holds a Masters in Public Health from the University of London and in addition to Spanish is also fluent in Russian where he lived and worked for years as an English teacher. Finally, we are happy to have faculty member Gabi Bonomo taking up the role of Grade 1 Class Teacher, Hawthorne Valley alum and lower school assistant, Ms. Ava Teague ‘18, stepping in to teach Art classes at HVS, and Mrs. Lindsay Gardner joining our Hickory staff as a part-time learning support specialist. We look forward to welcoming each of these new teachers and collaborating as a faculty to strengthen our programming. We are excited by the gifts and experiences that they are bringing to our students!
