Harford Friends School Appoints Inaugural First Grade Teacher

Street, MD-May 29, 2008 - Harford Friends School is pleased to announce the appointment of Sarah Lanigan, most recently from Baltimore City Schools, as the school's inaugural first grade teacher.

Harford Friends initiated their search for a first grade teacher in January. In the process, they received more than fifty rèsumès, held countless phone interviews, and invited only two candidates to school as finalists for the position. Those two finalists met with current faculty, HFS Trustees, Lower School Task Force volunteers, and most importantly, the middle school students who serve on the faculty search committee. Both candidates noted that the most insightful questions, the ones that really revealed the nature and tone of the school, came from the students.

Coincidentally, Ms. Lanigan taught one current HFS sixth grade student when that student was in first grade. Ms. Lanigan comes to HFS with many rave reviews, none of which may have been more noteworthy than those from a current student and her family. Ms. Lanigan's end-of-day story time and Halloween costumes were among their most enduring memories of a very special first grade teacher.

Enrolled and prospective HFS families are invited to help welcome Ms. Lanigan to the Harford Friends school community. She will be at HFS on Monday, June 2nd from 5:00-6:00 PM to meet with enrolled and prospective families, as well as members of the Board's Program and Personnel Committee. Light fare will be provided.

Sarah Lanigan's Background

Ms. Lanigan is a 2000 graduate of Randolph Macon College in Virginia where she was a Sociology major and Elementary Education minor. While there she also captained the women's tennis team for three years. Ms. Lanigan grew up in Newport News, Virginia where she attended Hampton Roads Academy, a highly selective independent school. She now resides in Bel Air with her husband and two year old daughter.

Ms. Lanigan's teaching background includes six years of highly successful first grade instruction at Martin Boulevard Elementary School (Baltimore County) and, after a year-long maternity leave, Holabird Academy (Baltimore City). Her supervisor at Holabird referred to Ms. Lanigan as that school's "model teacher" to whose room he would send other teachers to see effective classroom management and instruction in-action. She also teaches in an after-school program at Holabird for at-risk youth. Through tennis, Ms. Lanigan helps them develop confidence, interpersonal skills, and a sense of mastery and belonging. She was the unfortunate victim of cutbacks in a system that lets its most recently hired teachers go rather than those who are less qualified. We are the fortunate beneficiaries of this unfortunate situation.

Ms. Lanigan's passion for teaching is palpable. She's known since she was a child that she wanted to be a teacher. Activities in her classroom include word family "hunts" through which students "discover" similar sounds within words while "hunting" through the classroom with binoculars to identify various sounds. She says she likes to create activities for students that are active because she admits to having a hard time sitting still herself!

Of her arrival at Harford Friends, Ms. Lanigan states, "I am excited to be a member of Harford Friends School. The experience of learning is so enriching and I am thrilled to be the catalyst to help the children grow as readers, mathematicians, authors, scientists, and so much more."