18 employees awarded for excellence in service

Front Row: Pre-K Lead Teacher Leah Lenhardt; First Grade Lead Teachers Rebecca Stewart, Julianne Schaaf ’81, and Abbie Shaw; Upper Elementary Music Teacher Caitlin Grubbe; Upper Elementary Spanish Teacher Carrie Peralta; Upper Elementary Math Specialist Kerry Coote; Learning Team Specialist Samantha Steinberg Back Row: Associate Communications Manager Stephanie Selman; First Grade Lead Teachers Natalie Houk, Hilary Daigre, Melissa Cooney, and Margaret Abernathy; First Grade Senior Associate Teacher Bella Giorno; Learning Team Specialist Mary Jacob Harris; Third Grade Lead Teacher Matt Scott; Fourth Grade Lead Teacher Jen Overly; Early Elementary Art Teacher Nina Chamberlain

18 employees

awarded for excellence in service

By Katie Rosengren, Associate Director of Advancement

At the annual reception to celebrate excellence in service during employees’ back-to-school Pre-Planning in August, the Academic Leadership Team (ALT) presented awards to 18 esteemed members of Trinity School’s faculty and staff. These awards, which include a stipend to be used for personal growth or reimbursement for professional development expenses, were made possible by generous gifts to the School’s endowment over the years. We are thrilled to have the opportunity each year to honor passionate employees who demonstrate extraordinary dedication and commitment to Trinity. Nine employees were honored with Rollins Quest for Excellence grants: First Grade Lead Teacher Margaret Abernathy, Early Elementary Art Teacher Nina Chamberlain, Upper Elementary Math Specialist Kerry Coote, Learning Team Specialist Mary Jacob Harris, Fourth Grade Lead Teacher Jen Overly, First Grade Lead Teacher Julianne Schaaf ’81, Third Grade Lead Teacher Matt Scott,

Associate Communications Manager Stephanie Selman, and Learning Team Specialist Samantha Steinberg. These awards, which were made possible by a very generous gift from the Gary W. Rollins Foundation to recognize dedication and loyalty to Trinity, include a stipend to be used for personal and professional growth and renewal. ALT presented Upper Elementary Music Teacher Caitlin Grubbe and Pre-K Lead Teacher Leah Lenhardt with awards from The Hartman Family Fund for Faculty Excellence. This fund was established by Trinity parent Nathan Hartman to provide stipends to teachers who go above and beyond to provide exceptional service to the School.

Director of Curriculum Marsha Harris says of Leah, “This recipient is a poster child of love, joy, hard work, partnerships, and dedication to the work that we do at Trinity. She is an excellent teacher whom her students adore.”

Established to honor previous Head of School Stephen Kennedy’s 11 years of service to Trinity, the Stephen G. Kennedy Award for Faculty Excellence honors a faculty member using innovative best practices to foster Information Age skills. Upper Elementary Spanish Teacher Carrie Peralta was recognized with this award and stipend for her leadership in the World Languages department. Trinity’s First-Grade teachers applied for professional development as a team this year and were each honored with a grant to reimburse their travel expenses for an educational trip to London. The First-Grade teaching team will observe teaching and learning at a small school called The Emerson House that serves students with dyslexia, which causes difficulty with reading and spelling; dyscalculia, which is a learning difference that makes mathematics challenging; and dyspraxia, a developmental coordination disorder that causes difficulty with fine and gross motor skills. Having taught students who experience these learning differences, the First-Grade team is inspired to see how specialists at The Emerson House support their students. They hope to bring back tools, resources, and a greater understanding of how to best serve students with these learning differences to use in their classrooms and share with their Trinity colleagues. For our First-Grade teachers to take part in this meaningful opportunity together, each team member received an award from the endowment. Lead Teachers Margaret Abernathy, Melissa Cooney, Natalie Houk, and Julianne Schaaf ’81 were honored with awards from The Childress Family Fund for Faculty Excellence. Established in 2013, The Childress Family Fund supports faculty members in their professional growth and development by providing funds to pursue innovative programs to increase awareness, knowledge, and proficiency or insight that will be applied in the classroom and shared with Trinity colleagues. Lead Teachers Rebecca Stewart and Hilary Daigre received awards from the Teacher Opportunity Fund, which was established in 1994 to honor excellence in teaching and provides awards to faculty for travel, exploration, and curriculum enhancement. Senior Associate Teacher Bella Giorno and Lead Teacher Abbie Shaw received awards from The Chambers Medical Foundation for Faculty Support established in 2018 to recognize and honor exceptional faculty members with awards to pursue professional development that will enable them to bring new and innovative teaching practices back to the classroom and share this knowledge with Trinity colleagues. Congratulations to this year’s award recipients!