Schools

Media Center to be Dedicated to Former Hilldale Principal

The dedication ceremony will be Tuesday night.

After 45 years of serving as an educator in the Montville Township Public Schools district, Hilldale Elementary School's principal, Marianne Dispenziere, retired at the end of the 2012-13 school year.

However, she’s not been forgotten. The Hilldale Elementary Media Center is being dedicated in her honor.

At the Montville Board of Education meeting last month, Superintendent Paul Fried requested that the location of the Sept. 10 and 24 meetings be swapped so that the school board meeting at Hilldale Elementary could match up with the dedication of the Media Center. Also, with the extra time, it “will give us time to prepare for the dedication,” said Fried.

Find out what's happening in Montvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

So, on Tuesday at the 7:30 p.m. board meeting, the Marianne M. Dispenziere Media Center will be officially dedicated at Hilldale.

Named after “the former principal at Hilldale Elementery School and employee in our district for 45 years, she did a wonderful job for our children and our staff members throughout her tenure in the district,” said Fried. “I know the board is interested in doing something very special for her.”

Find out what's happening in Montvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“The board can’t take credit,” said Board President Karen Cortellino. “The credit goes to Mrs. (Tammy) Minsky’s third grade class who wrote us about 30 persuasive essays with the request to rename the school to honor Mrs. Dispenziere. I don’t think the board was prepared to do that at that time, but an idea from (Board Member Charles Grau) was to dedicate the media center at Hilldale to Mrs. Dispenziere. After discussion with the administration and we laid the groundwork for that.”

Letters have been sent out to the students letting them know that their efforts and essays resulted in this dedication.

“I reached out to Marianne and she is very grateful and very excited to receive this honor,” said Fried.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here