Full disclosure: Debra Galler is one of two faculty advisers for WordsWorth
For 229 years, Moorestown Friends school has upheld its prestigious reputation and academic standing with high-level faculty, a selective admissions process and a unique Quaker community. Hand-in-hand with its core values are a tight knit school community and a variety of options from which students may choose. But one thing has always been missing — well, that is, before cement was taken from the walls — and that is air conditioning. Yes, Moorestown Friends, your one-stop shop for a top-notch education, college prep, and rigorous courses doesn’t have little vents in the walls for air to come out.
But that’s all about to change. In a long-overdue development, Moorestown Friends School will install a brand-new air conditioning system in Stokes Hall, beginning in the Fall 2015.
WordsWorth sat down with Debra Galler, an Upper School teacher and long-time heat stroke sufferer, for a brief Q&A session to discuss the upcoming changes and what they mean for her.
WordsWorth: For how many long, uncomfortably sweaty, humid springs have you worked at MFS?
Debra Galler: First of all, it’s not only the spring, it’s the fall. Which is sweaty. But this is my tenth sweaty year at Moorestown Friends.
WW: What do you plan to do on hot spring afternoons with your newfound energy from cool air?
DG: I’m sure my teaching will be vastly improved. I may become teacher of the year, based on not having to focus my energy on sweating. I plan to stand up and move more often, and complain a lot less, which will benefit everyone.
WW: What was your first thought when you saw those beautiful holes in your walls?
DG: Well, after I wiped away the tears of joy, i just thought, ‘I am one step closer to my dream’, and if i may make a literary reference, it’s a little bit like Gatsby with the green light. I sort of just reached out my hand to the holes in the wall that represented what I had thought was an unattainable dream.
WW: Do you feel anyone deserves the gift of a modernized classroom with cool air more than you do?
DG: Well, I’m not one to try to take things away from my peers, but no, I deserve it the most. I sweat the most.
WW: Does this renovation cement Larry Van Meter’s legacy as the greatest MFS headmaster of all time?
DG: Absolutely. I want it on record that he is the greatest head of school of all-time. And, the School Committee is the greatest — they also helped make this decision.
