PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Miss Hall's School's Jeannie Norris has been honored by the Association of Boarding Schools in recognition of her 16-year tenure as head of the school.
Norris announced last spring that the 2011-12 academic year would be her final year at Miss Hall’s. The association recognized for her more than 30 years of dedication to educating young people. Additionally, she received its Citation of Leadership award, a tribute to her life’s work.
Norris' career includes more than 33 years of experience in independent education for girls. A foremost thought leader in girls’ education and a highly respected advocate for single-sex education, she speaks and writes extensively concerning the education of girls, women and philanthropy, and the effective management of independent schools. At Miss Hall's, Norris has continued to position the school as a nationally recognized boarding-and-day secondary school.
She became the ninth head of school in 1996 and will remain at Miss Hall's through June 2012, when she will be succeeded by Margaret A. Jablonski, currently vice president for student affairs at the University of New Haven in Connecticut.
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When one speaks of Jeannie Norris and her commitment and compassion to her profession you may think that she was born, raised, educated and molded to be the leader of Miss Hall's. Her dedication was remarkable!
Having been hired by Jeannie Norris, it was immediately apparent that she was all about education, direction and structure and her ability to provide a focus for growth and development in all that she did made her an icon for the many individuals that she influenced.
In many ways, I think that she may not even know how positively she impacted people, not for the moment, but for a lifetime. I recall hearing her words of wisdom about girls being educated to become leaders in their desired disciplines and yes how so much referred back to that book that was focused on the "why" of what we do and who we become.
More importantly, I adore the fact that I was able to meet someone that mirrored a role model for me in years past, her name was Candy Kelley, ironic that she was a graduate of Miss Hall's and mentored me in my early years of education. More specifically, it was a pleasure to see the consistency of what it was like to be directed, supervised and educated by global thinkers. Ones ability to think out of the box, challenge others to take risks and make young woman get out of their comfort zone to recognize that there are no limitations to their success is remarkable.
Jeannie Morris, Congratulations, recognition of this nature should not be taken lightly and is well deserved. You are a role model, a friend and yes I will let you retire knowing that you even taught a "man" a lot of things.
Thank You, I wish you well and hope to hear from you again someday.
As a graduate of Miss Halls who attended all four years there under Jeannie Norris, I must say I am slightly off-put by all of the extreme laudation that she seems to be generating upon her retirement . It reminds me somewhat of when President Nixon passed away 8 years ago and suddenly he was hailed as a sort of saint in a way in which he never was when in office. I for one heavily disagreed with the way Ms. Norris ran the school and many of her policies. I can confidently state that I was not alone in this feeling, either, as many of my contemporaries at Miss Hall's felt exactly the same as I did, if not with even more conviction than myself. This is not intended as an attack, but merely a balance of opinion. I do not think that it is appropriate, accurate, or fair to paint a biased or one-sided picture of Ms. Norris. Based on all of the articles that keep appearing surrounding her retirement, anyone who did not attend the school under her 'reign' could easily be forgiven for mistakenly thinking that everyone thought she was a wonderful thing to happen to Miss Hall's, when in fact this is very much not the case and couldn't be farther from the truth.
