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About Us

staff bios

support staff

  • Wendy Beltrami, Attendance Secretary (email)
  • Venita Bush, Business Manager
  • Teri Renz, Attendance Secretary
  • Beth Wheeler, Executive Assistant (email)
  • Gentle Tassione

    Educational Background
    Graduate of Vintage High School and Sonoma State University with a B.A. in Theatre Arts. I earned my single subject teaching credential in English at Touro University.
    Personal Information
    I love to read! Some of my favorite books are The No. One Ladies Detective Agency series and The Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series. A couple of my favorite movies are Mad, Hot Ballroom and Cinema Paradiso and the cdıs I listen to most often are mixes made by my students (thanks!). My favorite tv show is Ugly Betty, which I Netflix because I donıt have tv. I have a wonderful, smart, creative, athletic son named Sky who is in the first grade. I have three cats, one way cool (although very itchy) dog named Shirley, a couple of lizards, about fifty fish, a pet spider, and cannibalistic potato bug and a mess of caterpillars (all part of the package when you have a son). I have fantastic students and am in the process of setting up a website for my advisory, courtesy of a very handsome web designer at HandsomeCrow.com.
    Subjects Taught
    7th and 8th grade Language Arts and Language Arts Intervention
    Began Teaching at River School
    I started teaching in the Spring of 2000 when I took over for another drama teacher. This is my third year teaching 7th and 8th grade Language Arts.
    Taught Before
    I taught Preschool in my early twenties and I was a K-12 substitute teacher the year before I became River Schoolıs drama teacher.
    What is important to you in education?
    Being free to learn about the world and experience a connectedness to it and each other is, to me, the measure of quality education.
    What Defines the River School to you?
    River School is a place where the students know they have a voice. Being heard and respected builds confidence and strength of character that the students take with them when they leave our school. And it's a lot of fun!