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ACES Village School Principal, Virginia Tagliatela: A Passion for Special Education

February 21st, 2018


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Virginia Tagliatela, ACES Village School principal
As principal at ACES Village School, Ginny Tagliatela celebrates her students’
overcoming challenges, large and small.
(Photo by Matthew DaCorte/The Courier | Buy This Photo)

 

Virginia Tagliatela: A Passion for Special Education

Matthew DaCorte, Staff Reporter • Contact Reporter
Published Feb 21, 2018 • Last Updated 11:06 am, February 20, 2018


NORTH HAVEN —

As a high school freshman at Sacred Heart Academy in Hamden, Virginia “Ginny” Tagliatela began volunteering at a school and an adult facility for individuals with disabilities in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was a summer job that became her passion and started her on a career path that led to her current role as the principal at ACES Village School.

“That’s when I realized I wanted to go into special ed. Signed, sealed, delivered; that’s what I wanted to do for a living,” she says.

After earning a degree in special education, she began her teaching career in West Haven.

“I taught self-contained classrooms,” Ginny says, “Over the years, it was students with emotional disabilities, students with some physical disabilities, so a wide variety.”

Making the decision to become an educational leader, Ginny completed further studies and held an assistant director role for special education in West Haven, before becoming the director of special education in Seymour. Part of her responsibility in both roles was overseeing students placed in out-of-district schools, such as ACES. Ginny says there was always something special about Village School, and it feels like a family.

“I used to come here and I would joke with the old principal that whenever she retired, I wanted to take her position,” she says.

August marks two years since Ginny became principal at the school, and she says the experience has been wonderful. She believes the staff cares about the students, and the students are “little rays of sunshine.”

The Village School serving students with different types of disabilities. Ginny says it’s a great feeling when students greet her with a hug.

“There are things like that…It’s just so powerful,” Ginny says, “It reminds you why you got in education in the first place.”

Ginny says that working with other school districts that send students to ACES allows the school to provide the best education possible for students. She also enjoys working with North Haven community.

The North Haven Memorial Library offers an interactive sensory storytime designed for children with special needs that Ginny says some Village School students attend, and the school helps promote. Last year, library staff member Katherine Donohue visited Village School and held storytime activities with kids, allowing her to learn about the students and provide an enrichment activity for them.

“In doing that, we were able to talk to her about some ideas and suggestions to help her work with students with special needs at her sensory storytime,” Ginny says.

Though the partnership with the library is still in the beginning stages, she says it’s great for the school to have community resources that understand the school’s students. Ginny has other ideas for future community engagements including taking kids to local supermarkets and stores to learn life skills and positive behavior in public.

“Anything we can do to provide a well-rounded education, as far as students and for our parents; that community piece is so important,” Ginny says.

The school was recently awarded a $70,000 grant for cafeteria improvements that will help students have greater accessibility and independence. Ginny says small things like walking through a line and using utensils need to be taught at the school, just one example of the challenges that many people do not realize special needs students face every day.

“Being a part of the planning and the writing of the grant—just the vision of what it’s going to do for our students and our program here—it’s really exciting and I can’t wait for it to be done,” she says.

Ginny says she wakes up excited to go to work every day, and leaves thinking about a gain a student has made or something that a staff member has learned. Still, she’s always looking ahead at what can be improved on next.

“I spend more time here than I do at home,” Ginny says with a laugh.

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