Date: Fri 15-Jan-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

Jo-Ann-Peters-Hawley

Full Text:

An Upbeat Start For Hawley's New Principal

(with photo)

BY ANN MARIE COHEN

It was business as usual at Hawley School on a recent Friday morning. Amidst

much activity associated with an early school dismissal, secretaries busily

reviewed a list of parents in need of notification of the school closing. Two

educators enthusiastically exchanged ideas for a second grade lesson that

required a paper replica of a thermometer. And Jo-Ann Peters, Hawley's new

principal, greeted all visitors with a broad, welcoming smile.

Mrs Peters started her new position on December 14. Prior to that, Ronald

Vitarelli had been acting as interim principal after Principal Linda Siciliano

left to become principal of Stadley Rough School in Danbury.

Filled with the excitement of the first days on the job, Mrs Peters radiated

energy as she told of her educational and personal background. She has moved

to the Newtown area where she and her husband, Bart, are building a home.

Mr Peters is an attorney with the firm Shipman and Goodwin of Stamford. The

Peterses have two daughters, Katie, 4, and Rachel, 7. The girls attend Sandy

Hook schools.

Mrs Peters smiled as she recalled a discussion she had with her husband prior

to learning about her new job at Hawley School. They were trying to decide

what the ideal place to live and raise children would be. They both agreed on

Newtown. The Hawley job offer followed, and it reassured the Peterses that

things were unfolding for them as they should.

Prior to the move to Newtown, Mrs Peters and her family lived in Wallingford

where she was vice principal in the East Haddam school district. In her

earlier years she taught in the West Hartford school system where she became a

supervisory teacher and later a curriculum specialist.

Jo-Ann Peters believes education begins in the home, where the parents' role

is key. She values parental involvement in the school and believes it is

essential to the child's learning.

Mrs Peters went on to explain that the community as a whole is of utmost

importance to education. Her broad experience in education includes

initiatives that bring outside business interests into a partnership with

schools. Such a programs draw on the tremendous resources and people in the

working world and serve to enrich the students' education, where a

student-mentor relationship often develops.

In the past Mrs Peters had always been faced with a commute to work. She now

feels fortunate to work in her own hometown.

She said she has been pleased and gratified to discover how receptive both the

school and the community have been to her. She looks forward to establishing

roots in Newtown and to meeting the parents of all her students.