A Middle School Icon Leaves Her Mark on KO

Celebrating Retirement

a middle school icon leaves her mark on ko

By Kristen Weldon

If you know Jane Repp P ’06, ’08, you know quickly that she is not only part of the fabric of the Kingswood Oxford Middle School, she is part of the foundation. Beloved, treasured, and a source of inspiration for both teachers, colleagues, and students, her gentle and calming demeanor doesn’t demand or expect recognition. If one tried to give it to her she would smile and shake a hand and say she was just doing her job. But for decades of students whose lives have been fundamentally changed because of her, it goes so much further than that.

While some set their mind on a given profession, willing to do whatever it takes to seize the opportunity, for others, a profession finds them. And in the case of Jane Repp, while she originally didn’t plan to be a teacher, thank goodness for all of us, the world is just as it should be. Repp has loved kids from a young age. A camp counselor in high school, she tutored students in both middle and high school. But, she admits, “I never thought about becoming a teacher because I was never a school kid. I did fine, but I didn’t love school.” When she went to college she was attracted primarily to the math and psychology classes, and she was fascinated by how the brain works. While looking through the postings of businesses and organizations headed to campus in her senior year, she found one looking for

teachers at independent schools. So she met with the recruiter who told her, “if you can teach math, I will find you a job.” Repp began her career at Stoneleigh Burnham School in Massachusetts and later Charles River School in Boston where she taught 7th and 8th grade math, as well as enrichment with the younger grades. “The baseline is that you have to understand kids and connect with them,” said Repp. “I had that part and had all this stuff I knew about how they learned, and it all sort of fell into place.” Chuckling she said, “I couldn’t believe that I had landed in this thing that I liked and that I was capable of.” During her time in Boston she met her husband Whit, who lived in West Hartford at the time, and the two decided to settle down and raise a family in the area. Repp threw her name out to all the schools in the local area, interviewed at KO, and the rest is the beautiful history of an exceptional 37-year career. “It has been amazing,” said Repp. “To watch the school change in so many ways and stay the same in others. I have done so many different things in my career here, and it has been this very symbiotic relationship for almost my entire adult life.”

As she concludes her 37 years of teaching this year, Repp said one of the biggest changes she has seen is the shift from a formal, lecture-based school setting, to more student-centered learning where kids have a voice in the classroom and beyond. “There has been this shift from being more authoritative to working together in learning, and to watch that has been really cool,” she said. By using elements like constructivist learning, Repp has kept it fresh, hands-on, and progressive in her classroom. “Kids can learn without you telling them the answer,” she said. “I can actually just give things to them and frame it, and they take it from there. For me, it is fascinating to have your eyes opened to the fact that students can figure things out for themselves, and then think about what that means for their learning and confidence.” Over the course of her time at KO, she has also served as associate director of the Middle School, head of the Middle School, and director of teaching and learning. Looking back, Repp said she was surprised by the opportunity to take on these roles. As a younger person and teacher, for someone who wasn’t passionate about school, serving as a leader wasn’t ever something she thought she would have been interested in doing, and doing several times. “It was an amazing experience to do something you didn't see as a possibility for yourself and you aren’t sure that you have the skillset you have for it, but then you realize you do,” said Repp. “I have heard other people say that about KO; there are opportunities. There are times when people see things in you that you don’t see in yourself. We do this for our kids all the time and are really good at it with kids, and I think we sometimes do it for the adults, and that is an amazing thing to do.” She noted that the one constant she always kept, even when she was an administrator, was remaining in the classroom, and this helped her stay grounded with what was happening with students and faculty members. “I always had a sense of what was happening in the corners a little, which sometimes you lose sight of a bit. Also it kept me connected to this thing that I loved most,” she said. Repp enjoys teaching middle schoolers because students at this age are curious, imaginative, and still very excited about learning. “You have this layer of their brain development and have them in this place where they have the elements of the understanding and the abstract and the energy,” she said. “That is the beauty of it. These are young, excited, enthusiastic people who have this intellectual curiosity, and you are cracking the window on them for new ideas.”

If you watch Repp teach, it is a bit magical. She has a calm but assured approach, and this finetuned balance of giving students just the right amount of what they need to interact with a problem or scenario, the confidence and skills to

“she always thinks of the kids first. they are always on her mind. she is able to sift through all the noise to get to the problem at hand and think about a way to solve the problem.”

Ann Sciglimpaglia

Head of the Middle School

figure it out, seasoned with just the right amount of encouragement and support to get them there. And one can’t overlook her upbeat and positive nature. It is an integral part of who she is, and you feel it in her classroom.

“All the research is that with kids, being punitive doesn’t help,” she said. “What you want is for them to recognize that they can be a better self. Kids innately want to do the right thing.” Repp’s colleagues have just as much praise for her as she has for them. “Jane was the second person I spoke to here at KO, and she was one of the big reasons why I came to work here,” Head of the Middle School Ann Sciglimpaglia said. “She always thinks of the kids first. They are always on her mind. She is able to sift through all the noise to get to the problem at hand and think about a way to solve the problem. She is a problem solver in the truest sense. She is someone I have always looked up to, wanted to model myself after, and wanted to learn from.” As a pillar of the program and the faculty, the spark plug of what has made the Middle School the magical place it is, her absence will be felt on many levels. As for the future, she shakes her head fondly at all the things she will miss. “I am really going to miss the act of teaching, of thinking of how to help someone learn something and then the joy of watching them do that. It is amazing,” she said. For Repp, it is all about the learning, whether it is a student telling her they didn’t like math until her class, or a parent acknowledging how happy they are to have her as their child’s teacher because now their student believes they can do it, or to have someone tell her they hope they have her next year. These seemingly small things are the really big things for Repp. “My goal has always been for students to learn, to know that I care about them and to know that they can do it,” she said. “I am going to really miss watching that happen.” For Repp, there is no shortage of love outside of the classroom in her own life. She and her husband have two daughters, Lindsay ’06 and Hanna ’08, both of whom she welcomed during her tenure at KO. “I didn’t know what it was like to see kids go through the school as a parent and that gave me a perspective on what an incredible place this was. KO made them more confident, capable students, and thoughtful human beings,” she said. So what is next for this beloved icon? So much. She gets to hop on a plane, or jump in a car on a whim and go be grandma or mom, or see her own mother. “There is a lot of tugging to be able to spend more time,” said Repp. “And I will be able to do just that.” In addition to the joy of being a mother and grandmother, Repp also has a myriad of hobbies and interests she will pursue with more dedicated time. An avid reader, gardener, and cook, she also has made pottery throughout her life, something she describes as a creative and rewarding outlet. She also loves the outdoors, whether it is running, skiing, or sailing. Whatever she fills her time with, there is no question that she will be forever missed at KO. “It feels good, it feels right,” she said. “Very bittersweet, but feels right.”