Faculty and Board of Directors
Our Teachers
The teaching staff of the Hiland Hall School is made of highly qualified and dedicated people who set the direction and establish the framework for classroom activities; they organize and execute the programs and curriculum. It is a matter of school policy that the teachers are generally available to make appointed meetings with parents to discuss curriculum, classroom programs and activities, and individual areas of concern. The teachers issue detailed individual student evaluations twice a year, and expect to meet and discuss them with parents.
Jessica Howard – Founder
I was born in 1942 in Los Angeles, California, and brought up there by my mother and grandmother – after whom I was named. As a child I made up lots of plays, read a lot, and made ‘hide-outs’ with my friends. I decided to be a teacher when I was eleven years old. I spent my adolescent years reading and looking after very young children. I came to Bennington College after high school. I loved New England, and only later discovered that my father’s family came from New England. I instantly – as a first month freshman – I identified Philosophy as a major. (I also continued to know I would teach.) My other major was history, but I did a lot of math. During the off campus work periods I programmed for computers, worked in a hospital, worked for a sociologist on a psychiatric ward, and worked in a department store. I worked as a camp counselor for six years. After I graduated, I went to Bank Street College of Education, became certified to teach, and taught, first in New York City and then in North Bennington at the then beginning Prospect School. I was associated with the Prospect School from 1966 to 1991. It would take too long to put into words what I learned there – essentially to be who I am, to say nothing of teaching. I left Prospect briefly in 1969 to teach for a year in New Hampshire, and then to study at the University of Connecticut, earning a Master’s degree in Learning Disabilities. I have one son, Asa Keefe. I have lived in my current home in Shaftsbury, VT for 25 years where I discovered my other vocation – gardening. Anybody who wants to talk gardens, just come on by. When Prospect closed in June of 1991, a group of interested parents and teachers joined to begin the Hiland Hall School. Starting and carrying on the school has been a wonderful experience. It’s fun to see how what one has learned can really be put to use.
Why do I teach? I find the way children think, talk, make and do to be endlessly interesting. I love the sense of relationship and discovery; I love participating in the sense of importance and meaning that children bring to their lives. I just love them.
Ethan Richman – Middle School Teacher and Principal
I was born into a family of boys and raised at a place called Hope Farm –our home was on the campus of a rural boarding school for Haitian refugees where my mom was the school’s principal and my dad was director of clinical services. Hope Farm boasted its own New York state rural delivery state zip code and was considered a suburb of Verbank, which was considered a suburb of Millbrook, which was considered a suburb of Poughkeepsie.
My family eventually moved to Burlington, VT but I returned to attend boarding school at Millbrook School, a dynamic place where – despite my best (adolescent) efforts otherwise – I probably learned as much, if not more, about teaching and learning than I did in graduate school. The founder of the school used to talk about education as teaching through personality and this idea resonates with me because it speaks to, among other things, the power and potential of human connection.
I’ve been an educator for most of my adult life and I’ve been lucky enough to work in a lot of different settings with lots of different types of learners: high achieving high schoolers; at-risk teenage boys; single moms; curious grandparents and – of course – elementary and school kids. As an adjunct instructor at the Community College of Vermont, I teach courses such as Peace and Turmoil in the Modern World, Modern Middle Eastern History; and US History from 1945 to the Present.
My formal credentials include an undergraduate degree in social sciences from Lyndon State College and a master in education degree from the University of Vermont.
When I’m not at Hiland Hall, you’ll find me hunkered down at home with my family: my wife Amy Beth whom I met high school, two big dogs (Ella and Silas), one big cat (Otis), and one not-so-big cat (Little Abe). I enjoy fishing in the summers – there is something so peaceful and meditative about listening to the river. Usually I’m reading several newspapers from around the world and I like to discuss current events with anyone who will engage. I also love downhill skiing, snowshoeing, playing catch and baking sweet treats.
Why do I teach?
Teaching is not something I do eight hours a day– it is who I am all of the time. To me, being an educator is simply more meaningful, more invigorating, more challenging and more fun than any other profession I can imagine.
Why do I teach at Hiland Hall?
Hiland Hall is more than a school: it’s a genuine community – in all its messiness and beauty. It’s a school with a loud heartbeat. It’s one of those rare places that is alive, really alive. It’s a place where curiosity is celebrated within a fiercely compassionate context. Each day, I learn with my students; this is an intention process and together we take risks, sometimes fall down and more often than not, stumble upon brilliance.
Alida Salins- Elementary Teacher
I grew up in Melville, a suburban town in the middle of Long Island, NY. My parents are both ethnically Latvian (the last name Salins means “little island” in Latvian), and as member of a small expatriate community, I attended Latvian-speaking Sunday schools, as well as a summer camp in the beautiful Catkskill mountains, where I have been a counselor for the past seven years, and a program director for the last four. My love of that environment, and the relationships I formed with the children, strongly influenced my desire to be a teacher.
I attended Bennington College for undergraduate study and pursued my interests in variety of subjects including: comparative literature, creative writing, ecology, political science, painting and drawing, and Spanish, to name a few! I was also working part-time at the Early Childhood Center, and I began to spend Bennington’s winter term of experiential learning in schools ranging from a private day school in Manhattan to a struggling public school outside of Boston. When it came time to focus my interests, I decided to enter the college’s master’s program for a degree in Elementary Education. I spent the year student teaching at Shaftsbury Elementary School, as well as continuously reflecting on my teaching philosophy, methods and experiences in a Qualifying Portfolio. I’m currently certified in both Vermont and New York State.
Nancy Nardone- Elementary Teacher
When I was in first grade at Bala Cynwyd Elementary School outside of Philadelphia where I was born and raised, I wrote that I wanted to be a baby-sitter when I grew up. Throughout my childhood, I organized “art class” and games for my much younger sister and her friends, and in my teens and through college I worked with kids at camps or in summer recreation programs. My volunteer work in college was at the campus daycare center. I have always been drawn to working with children.
I graduated from Marlboro College in Vermont with an emphasis in Cultural Anthropology. After college I worked for two years as a teacher at a daycare center, and lived at poverty level. That inspired me to attend Antioch New England Graduate School for my Masters in Education. I have since held a Vermont Professional Educator’s License with an elementary endorsement for the past 24 years.
I am a part-time teacher at Hiland Hall and have other part-time work when I am not at the school. I am a clay artist and make hand-built botanically inspired stoneware. I also teach from my studio and run Clay Play Studio Art Camp each summer. Every year a group from Hiland Hall comes to the studio to do a clay project that integrates with work they are doing in the classroom. I am also a Hebrew School teacher at Congregation Beth El in Bennington and enjoy teaching Israeli folk dance to my students.
I first got involved with Hiland Hall as a parent and as a classroom volunteer. Both of my daughters attended Hiland Hall through their elementary and middle school years, and neither one ever wanted to miss a minute of school. The girls transitioned with ease and great success into public high school, and they have only the fondest feelings about their foundation years at Hiland Hall. My husband, Ken, who also spent eleven years as a parent of students at the school, was very enriched by the experience as well.
When I am not at work my hobbies include: spending time with my family, working in the garden growing and preserving vegetables or tending flowers, walking my beloved dog in the woods, cooking and baking delicious food for my family, dancing, swimming, and camping. My favorite places on earth are anywhere costal, especially if it is warm, and the family cottage that borders the White Mountain National Forest and has no internet, TV, cell service, or car access.
Our Board
Our Board of Directors is largely composed of parents of both former and current students, as well as non-parent members of the community. They are responsible for long-range planning, establishing goals and policies, and legal and fiscal matters. The Board is a volunteer group. Board meetings are open to all interested persons in the school community.
