JILL RUBINSTEIN

Park Grade 3 teacher Jill Rubinstein leaves Park this spring after 23 years of service. A graduate of Smith College, Jill began her career in Greenfield, Massachusetts, where she taught fifth grade for three years. Through the Smith College alumnae network, however, she learned of an opening at The Park School for a Grade 3 teacher through fellow alumna and Park teacher Lynne Dichter. Jill applied and was chosen, and launched her Park tenure.

Her journey as a Park teacher was soon joined by her journey as a Park parent with the arrival of her two children, who graduated from Park amidst the pandemic in 2020. Her Park relationships and friendships extend across two decades of colleagues and fellow parents. The mother of two of Jill’s students, long time colleague and friend Kate LaPine, credits Jill for keeping humor and perspective both in the classroom and out. “Jill’s ability to delight in her students’ curiosity and silliness provides a healthy guidepost for parents.”

A skilled teacher who has helped shape a generation of Park alumni, her former students include several current faculty members, including Manny Duarte Perlovsky, Class of 2009 and current

Grade 4 Assistant Teacher; Sophie Moss ’09, Upper Division After School Program Director; and Isa Moss ’09, Grade 4 Lead Teacher. During her tenure, Jill has served on a variety of committees, ranging from hiring teams to the Data curricular review committee, and we are grateful for her contributions. Reflecting on her time at Park, Jill notes that what most sustained and connected her to Park has been the wonderful colleagues with whom she has had the pleasure of working—she has loved all the people she has worked with and is grateful for their partnership. Teaching third graders, aged 8 and 9, has been a particular joy for Jill. She says, “They are the best people,” at a developmental stage in which they are, simply, delightful humans who are enthusiastically engaged in a year of discovery, so ready to build on and apply the basics they solidified in the earlier grades.