YEA R S OF

Debbie Henry

Debbie Henry, Park’s Director of Academic Support, leaves Park this June after 22 years of service.

A member of the Park community since 1995, Debbie joined Park’s academic support team as a parttime learning specialist, and though she stepped away twice while raising her daughter, she has been at the foundation of building the academic support program ever since.

Debbie began her career at Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, NY as a Grade 5 English and Social Studies teacher and advisor, and as Middle School learning specialist and advisor before serving as Learning Skills Department Head, Grades 5–12 and Grade 9 Curriculum Director. A graduate of Boston University, Debbie completed her M.A. in Reading and Learning Disabilities at NYU, and was awarded a prestigious Klingenstein Fellowship at Teachers College, Columbia University, as one of 12 educators nationwide to receive a grant to study integration of learning skills in selective independent schools.

Due in large part to Debbie’s dedication to members of the academic support team and the children they serve, she built on the foundation established by her predecessor, Peggy Blumenreich, to develop a strong and cohesive team and deepen

Tracy Duliban

Tracy Duliban, Director of Park’s After School Program (ASP), leaves Park this spring after 20 years. Tracy first came to Park as an intern in 2000 and then worked as a Kindergarten assistant and after school teacher at Pierce School in Brookline until 2003, when her Park mentoring teacher, Pam Shepley, reached out to see if Tracy would join her as a member of Park’s after school team. When Pam left Park a few years later, Tracy stepped in to lead the program.

Under Tracy’s leadership, ASP has become a warm and welcoming community at Park, a place where children find friends, connection across grade levels and with adults in the community, where they feel seen and valued, and enjoy a relaxing, play-based end to their day that feeds their social-emotional needs. ASP has also been the channel through which many current faculty have found their way to Park—the list of teachers who started out at ASP is a testament to Tracy’s legacy. The community-within-a-community that ASP creates is what Tracy most appreciates. For families who cannot be present on campus during the partnership between academic support professionals, Park’s academic leadership and teachers, students and their families. Named Director of Academic Support in 2014, Debbie has developed effective partnerships and systems of communication, teacher and parent meetings, documentation, and review, ensuring that Park students are at the very center of all academic support considerations and discussion, while also recognizing and supporting the strengths of each of the professionals in the department as they seek to benefit each of the children with whom they work. the day, ASP is their main entry point to community engagement at Park, where they get to connect with other families and with teachers. The team sees the children and their families in the ASP community grow from PreK and Kindergarten onward, helps celebrate big moments in children’s lives, and ASP becomes an important point of connection given the wide geography from which Park families draw.

Among Debbie’s contributions to the Park community has been her consistent advocacy for funding to make educational testing accessible to families whose children would benefit from the information that can be learned from this testing, but for whom its cost was out of reach. Her expertise in understanding how best to support students with varied learning styles and academic support needs, and in building clear partnerships between home, learning support, and each child’s classroom development year to year has guided Park in building the academic support program that has so deeply benefitted Park’s students. Debbie looks forward to having the opportunity to travel and to enjoy time with friends and family. We are grateful for her tireless efforts.

ASP continues to grow and evolve, and Tracy feels fortunate to have been a part of an amazing program. While enrollment was necessarily sharply limited during the pandemic, enrollment now continues to grow beyond pre-pandemic levels, perhaps because families who might previously have signed their kids up for activities outside of Park know they can count on Park to provide a stable, healthy, and stimulating environment where their children are known and appreciated.

As she moves on beyond Park, she looks forward to giving up her long commute from south of Providence, and to all she will be able to do with her reclaimed time: baking and trying new recipes, and traveling. We appreciate her long and loyal dedication, and wish her all the best.