Stamford Teacher Retires After 49 Years in Education

From a Stamford Patch reader:

Mary Jennings is retiring as the Director of Early Childhood Development and Intervention in Stamford Public Schools after forty-nine years in education, thirty years in Connecticut, and twenty-five years in Stamford Public Schools.

Her distinguished history and career in Education includes four Principalships, multiple grants and awards including the NAACP Educational Advocacy Award (1998), two Directorships, multiple appointments and committees including the Governor Commission on Children. Mary has been a pioneer in diversity, literacy, math, early childhood education, after school care and special education, and a family and civic leader.

Mary Jennings began her career in Stamford after a successful teaching career beginning in 1967 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mary received her Bachelor of Education Degree from Cheyney State Teacher’s College in Pennsylvania in 1966 and a Master of Education with certification in Special Education from Beaver College in Pennsylvania in 1981. In 1985 Mary left the Downingtown Area School District in Pennsylvania to teach fifth grade at Springdale Elementary School in Stamford, CT.

Mary received her Administration and Supervision Certification in 1987 from Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Connecticut.

Following an Administrative internship at Springdale in 1987, Mary went on to be Principal of Northend Elementary School in New Britain, CT from 1988-1992. Mary returned to Stamford as Principal of Rogers Elementary School where she, along with staff, developed the SMART Magnet Program (Science, Math, Arts through Technology), instituted a Math and Robotics Olympiad, and H.O.T.S. (Higher Order Thinking Skills) Arts Enrichment curriculum, in the six years she was Principal (1993-1990). Rogers also received the Yale University School of the 21st Century designation and grant for two consecutive years.

In 1999 Mary Jennings was recruited as the first Director of the Amistad Academy, in New Haven, CT, a state-charter Magnet 5-8 school. Mary returned to Stamford as Principal of Hart Magnet School in 2002. Under Mary’s leadership, Hart Magnet School staff received the Cornerstone Partner Certification for Literacy.

In 2007 Mary became the Director of Literacy and Social Studies K-12, overseeing the development of Language Arts K-12 and Social Studies 6-12 curriculum as well as the GE Foundation Developing Futures Grant for literacy programs until 2013 when she became the inaugural Director of APPLES, Stamford’s Early Childhood Development Center at Rippowam.