Alumni Magazine Spring 2010 - Green Meadow Waldorf School

Teacher Feature: Changing of the GuardKay Hoffman: First in Her ClassJohn Wulsin, HS English TeacherIwent through theFoundation Year andWaldorf Teacher Trainingat Emerson College in Sussex,England in 1971-1972 in thecompany not only of DavidSloan, but also with the(Top) Kay with son David at Emerson College, England,1972; (above) Pictured with her brother David, Kay as anew waitress at Threefold, 1964.flamboyant Roger Sciarretta,who was there accompaniedby his quiet, patient wife, Kay,watching and listening in theshadows while taking careof newborn David andimminent Peter.The next year, Roger andKay joined the ThreefoldEducational community,and Roger taught art in thefledgling Green MeadowWaldorf High School whileKay taught one secondgrade class in 1974 beforeretiring to welcome the birthsof Christopher and, later,Teresa. At home with fouryoung children, Kay starteda small organic/biodynamicfood cooperative out of theirhouse. As the Co-op grew,Monica Alexandra and KarenMcCraken joined with Kay toexpand the Co-op, first intothe garage under the schoolgym and, later, into one of theThreefold Brookside houseswhen Christine Sloan joinedthe group. Twenty-five yearslater, the Hungry Hollow Coopis now a prominent, tricountyenterprise presidingover the corner of HungryHollow Road and Route 45.Green Meadow was foundedin 1950. As the schoolapproached thirty years ofage, many of the original,founding teachers moved on,and new teachers took over,including Kay, who in 1981began teaching French parttime.In the same year, RogerSciarretta, who had beenserving as the chairperson ofthe whole school, left family,school and community. Intime, John Hoffman, part-timechemistry and math teacher,and Kay found each other,and Kay Frahm Sciarrettabecame Kay Hoffman. Shealso joined a largely malefaculty as a full-time teacher inthe High School, establishingthe French program and ourforeign student exchangeprogram.During the early 1990s, Kayripened into serving as theHigh School Chair, workingefficiently and increasinglywisely. After seventeen yearsof teaching high schoolFrench and fruitful workteaching Parzival in a variety ofcontexts, Kay’s success as HighSchool Chair and the school’sgrowing need for governanceled Kay to contemplate adramatic shift in her calling.With the school’s blessing,Kay Hoffman became GreenMeadow Waldorf School’s firstadministrator in 1996/7.To her gifts of quiet, patient,attentive listening, KayHoffman added her capacitiesto think, speak and workefficiently in service to the workof the faculty, staff and studentsof the Green Meadow WaldorfSchool. Teachers, accustomedto shouldering administrativeresponsibilities, were freedup to focus more fully ontheir teaching, supportedby an utterly trustworthycolleague. With Kay at theadministrative helm of theschool, Green Meadow wasfinally able to clarify its newlyindependent relationship withthe Threefold EducationalFoundation. Green Meadow’s8 | Alumni Magazine