Jeff Tannatt was waiting for dusk to fall. Behind the Homestead, a new type of light—an induction florescent, to be specific—was shining across the parking lot. If the light proved bright enough, and Tannatt liked what he saw, then the director of the Physical Plant and his staff planned to install some 66 of the lights across campus.
Earlier this spring, a family at The Williston Northampton School made an anonymous donation of $60,000 to improve lighting across campus and renovate the school’s entrance way.
As a result, some 54 existing campus lights will be retrofitted with LEDs and another 12 around Middle School will be replaced. The gift also covered landscaping at the entrance way, repairs to the brick and stone gate, and the addition of a missing section of ornamental iron fence.
Kim Evelti’s 45-minute geometry class was always a challenge to teach. If the math teacher wanted do classroom projects—studying angles on buildings, for example, or forming geometrical shapes out of paper—she had to squeeze in the activity, plus time for discussions and assignments, in less than an hour.
“It was hard for me to even fit that in to a 45-minute period, let alone fit it into the period, come back together, talk about it, write something down in your note book and then try a problem that applies to it,” she said.
So, Evelti, who is also the assistant academic dean for program development at The Williston Northampton School, was said she was excited when asked to head the Daily Schedule Task Force last year. The task force offered an opportunity to look at new models for the academic day, she said.
“I had played with different schedule models for fun,” Evelti said. “I had had some days about longer periods with fewer periods over the day, longer transitions, shorter homework assignments—just different thoughts and crazy ideas.”
Led by Evelti, the task force, a group of nine faculty members from various disciplines, spent the next six months identifying schedule goals, researching other schools, developing models, and gathering feedback from the Williston community.
What would emerge was a series of small, but significant, changes, all designed to give students and faculty better options during the day. Among the changes: a seventh period, standardized 60-minute classes, free periods during the day, and departmental meeting times. The schedule also moved from a four-week to a two-week rotation on a green and blue scheme.
They picnicked in the rolling countryside, saw ancient frescoes in Pompeii, and swam in the Mediterranean. But perhaps the quintessential moment of the Latin program trip to Italy came when the eight students and three adults visited del Cioccolato Antica Norba.
At the small family-run chocolate factory and museum, the group learned about how cocoa is processed and sampled fresh, warm chocolate, said language teacher Emily Vezina, one of the trip leaders.
“Many students bought souvenirs here,” she wrote in an email about the trip. “Chocolate pasta, best served with ricotta cheese and pine nuts, was a popular purchase.”
Over the course of their weeklong stay, from June 7 to 14, the students also explored Pompeii—visiting ancient fast food restaurants, homes, temples, mosaics, and frescoes—under the tutelage of Alessandro, a “dramatic and expressive guide.”
In the town of Sorrento, the group stayed in a hotel perched on the cliffs overlooking Mediterranean Sea. In the evening, they walked down the switchbacks of a narrow cobblestone road and went for a swim.
“Some students swam out to a nearby cave in the rock promontory that framed the bay,” Vezina wrote.
In the medieval city of Norma, in the Lepini Mountains, the students strolled along ancient Roman roads, saw a bath complex that was being excavated, and had a picnic in the countryside.
“Meanwhile all around us paragliders floated through the sky,” Vezina wrote, “some landing in the ruins, others sailing to the countryside below.”
The smallest library in Easthampton began its first day with a 27-book selection; Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees was there, plus Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, and The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss.
Library builder Bruce Simonds of Easthampton put a finishing touch on the floor, then closed the door and stepped back. To one side, bicyclists looked over their shoulders as they passed on the Manhan Rail Trail. To the other, bees buzzed around a small garden.
“This is very, very wonderful, Bruce,” said Gina Tirrell, administrative assistant to the CFO at The Williston Northampton School. “I think it’s the perfect location for it.”
Thirteen women from the Northampton School for Girls Class of 1962 were heading down a back staircase when one looked around with sudden recognition.
“Miss Whittaker and Miss Bement used to walk down these for prayers!” she said.
“Oh my God! Yes!” said a classmate.
The women paused for a moment, glancing around, and then continued on their way down the stairs, swapping stories of French fieldtrips, old pranks, and favorite teachers.
The tour of the former Northampton School for Girls buildings and grounds was just one of many activities that celebrated school history and alumni during Reunion Weekend, June 8-10. Special reunion exhibits and slideshows celebrated the past, while jazz on the quad, summer barbecues, and class dinners recognized the spirit of the present.
During the class-sponsored seminars, faculty and alumni offered lectures on everything from playwriting and mite infestations to the upcoming Presidential election.
In a popular talk on Afghanistan, Lieutenant Colonel Richard H. Brown ’72 and Colonel Stephen P. White ’77, P’11 discussed the country’s drug trade and the development of, and setbacks with, major infrastructure.
“I can’t emphasize enough how very difficult this stuff is because of the terrain,” Lt. Col. Brown said, showing slides of rugged mountains and arid desert land. Still, he said that the development of infrastructure, in a long-term and sustainable way, was critical to getting Afghanistan back on solid economic footing.
“The silk road is the balancing act,” he said. “That’s what could tilt the economy positively.”
A balancing act of the academic kind was the focus of another talk—“Williston Northampton Today,” presented by Head of School Robert W. Hill III P’15.
Speaking to alumni in the Williston Theatre, Hill talked about how boarding schools have changed over the past decade and how The Williston Northampton School, in particular, had become “a more diverse campus in every sense.”
“We are schools of the world,” he said. “What happens in our classrooms, on our fields, in our dorms provides a foundation for everything that follows. That almost 350 alumni and former faculty are on this campus this weekend is a testament to the strength of this experience.”
Both the pre-merger institutions of the Northampton School for Girls and Williston Academy were recognized in archival images and slideshows over the weekend. There was also a special dedication of the NSFG Angelus bell in its new home on the lawn of 194 Main Street.
But it was a tour of the old NSFG campus on June 9—through buildings now part of the Cutchins Programs for Children and Families—that proved to be a highlight of the weekend.
In celebration of their 50th Renunion, members of the Class of 1962, their spouses, and a few fellow alumna walked through the old buildings, reminiscing about school life. The rooms brought back memories of favorite teachers, awards ceremonies, English papers, and science labs.
“I dissected a frog in here!” said an alumna, through a doorway.
“Are the worms still in here that we cut up?” joked another. “Do you see any worms?”
It was not a walk down memory lane, perhaps, but a stroll through memory’s classrooms and corridors. Which made it all the more fitting that, as the tour was drawing to a close, the NSFG alumna lined a front staircase and together sang the Alma Mater.
Earlier this spring, a family at The Williston Northampton School made an anonymous donation of $60,000 to improve lighting across campus and renovate the school’s entrance way.
