Saturday, June 12, 2021 | Unsung Heroes The Brattleboro Reformer | Reformer.com 14
HILLTOP MONTESSORI SCHOOL TEACHERS 99 STAFFORD FARM HILL, WEST BRATTLEBORO Hilltop Montessori School is an independent, non-profit educational institution in Brattleboro for children aged toddlers through middle school. Teachers at the school were nominated for an Unsung Hero award for making the return to fully in-person instruction a positive experience for families. Tamara Mount, head of school at Hilltop Montessori, said teachers and administrators worked hard last summer to develop a reentry plan that would meet state requirement plans and be comforting to staff and parents who were concerned about the safety of in-person learning. “So many of us needed the community and social/emotional support provided by being in person,” she said. “We saw children from toddlers through middle schoolers who had felt the isolation of the spring and summer of 2020 and, in the fall of 2020, were craving the company of their friends and teachers. We have spent the year prioritizing state health and safety procedures as well as the social/ emotional needs of our students, in an effort to help build back the relationships that had become ‘remote’ and support our students during this strange and tremulous time.” Having students on campus five days a week allowed families to stabilize their work needs and for children to socialize, Mount said. “Our families were wonderfully appreciative and supportive of us meeting in person, and we would not have been able to do so with-
out their partnership,” she said. Mount said the school was pleased to be nominated for the award. “Early on in the school year, when most schools in our county were still remote, Hilltop Montessori had been in person every day since the school year began,” said Joslyn McIntyre, a parent at the school. “The new drop-off routine meant parents had to stay in cars while teachers conducted health screenings and walked students into their isolated, podlike classrooms. It was a serious affair at first, with everyone trying to learn
the new protocols and keep their masks on at all costs.” McIntyre recalled listening to Cyndi Lauper’s hit “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” pretty loudly in the car one morning with her two kindergarten-aged daughters. “Suddenly I noticed that a handful of our teachers had dropped what they were doing and were dancing over to my car,” McIntyre said. “Everyone was smiling; it was a moment. It wasn’t just a moment, though, because I’m convinced this is going to be one of the memories my young daughters take away from this pandemic.
Months later, they still ask me to play ‘that song’ almost every day on the way to school. There are a lot of things they could remember from this time, but one thing I am absolutely certain they will remember is the joy, love, comfort, strength, and courage their amazing teachers brought to school — in person! — every single day of this year. And, of course, they’ll remember the infectious joy of ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.’” Mount said staff feel with the success of this year, they have added to the sustainability of the school’s programs into the future.
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