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On Thursday, March 17, the Wellesley Education Foundation and Wellesley School Committee held the annual Chair Ceremony honoring staff members who have contributed 25 years of their professional career to the Wellesley Public Schools at the Lulu Wang Campus Center at Wellesley College.
The six honorees received a captain’s chair embossed with the Town of Wellesley seal and friends and colleagues toast and roast them with skits, poems and personal speeches.
This year’s honorees were Donna Arcudi, Donna Chaff, Suzanne Chmielinski, Beth Gillespie, Jane Lord and Beth Watson.
Arcudi is a physical education teacher at the Wellesley Middle School, where in 2003 she was the MAHPERD’s Massachusetts Middle School Physical Education Teacher of the Year.
Chaff taught at six of the Wellesley elementary schools, but most of her time was spent at Upham. She was the Massachusetts recipient for the Society of General Music Excellence in Music award in 2011.
Chmielinski retired in 2015 from the Wellesley Middle School English department. She received a WEF grant in 2013 to support independent reading.
Gillespie began her career at the Wellesley Public Schools in food services at the middle school. She has worked in the Production Center since 2000.
Lord teaches business courses at the high school. Students who have had her classes have learned how to develop a business plan, maintain the Wellesley High store, gain a greater understanding of third world issues and how they can make a difference helping impoverished artists in Haiti.
Watson has worked as the Fiske School secretary for the past 26 years.
For more information about the WEF, visit www.wellesleyeducationfoundation.org.
