From Harford County Public Schools:
Janet (Pomilla) Inners was born in Haddonfield, New Jersey, and graduated from Haddonfield Memorial High School in 1965. She continued her education at Tusculum College in Greeneville, Tennessee, where, in 1969, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. Mrs. Inners was influenced to enter the field of education by the positive academic and extracurricular programs that she experienced as a student. Immediately following college graduation, she began her teaching career at Park Junior High School in Knoxville, Tennessee. In the spring of 1970, she saw an advertisement for a job opening in Harford County and transferred to Maryland to continue her career.
During her career with Harford County Public Schools (HCPS), Mrs. Inners taught Spanish at Havre de Grace High School from 1970 to 1973, at Bel Air High School from 1976 to 1977 and at Fallston High School from 1978 to 2005. In addition, Mrs. Inners furthered her education earning her 30+ credits by completing classes through University of Tennessee, Towson University and Loyola University and participating in Harford County workshops.
As an educator, Mrs. Inners’ goal was to ensure the academic success and personal self esteem of all her students by creating a positive atmosphere in her classroom. She expected her students to be honest, to respect individual differences, to ask for help when needed and, most importantly, to understand that some days would be better than others. Mrs. Inners cherished the opportunity to interact with her students on a daily basis. Her students’ unending enthusiasm and youthful perspectives were truly inspirational for her.
Beyond teaching in the classroom, Mrs. Inners was very active in extracurricular student programs. She was the cheerleading sponsor, the Students Against Drunk Drivers (SADD) advisor, the Senior Class co-sponsor, the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) faculty representative, Middle States Evaluation co-chair, a member of the Distance Learning Pilot Program and the Foreign Language department chair. Her contributions to school improvement initiatives and curriculum revision and advancement were consistent throughout her tenure. And at the county level, she participated in instructional leadership, assessment, incentive awards and curriculum committees.
Mrs. Inners is most proud of being a strong student advocate, a teacher mentor and a valued colleague. In 1996, she was honored with the Distinguished High School Teacher Award from Western Maryland College after being nominated by a former student.
Colleagues of Mrs. Inners speak highly of her as having an immense positive impact on the foreign language department at HCPS. Mrs. Inners was nominated for induction into the HCPS Educator Hall of Fame by former supervisor Harvey Bennett, with endorsements from former supervisors Eileen Turowski and Robert Pfau and former colleague Kimberly Banks.
“Janet Inners can be best characterized by her sincere interest and focus on student achievement,” said Mr. Pfau. “Under her leadership, the foreign language student enrollment blossomed, gradually incorporating levels I through IV in Spanish, German and French, as well as advanced placement courses.”
“[Janet’s] enthusiasm, energy and excitement for teaching were contagious,” said Mrs. Banks. “She was well-respected by her students who valued her knowledge of and ability to teach the Spanish language.”
After 30 years with HCPS, Mrs. Inners retired in 2005. It was a very difficult decision for her to make because she still loved teaching every day, but she felt it was time to give another young, enthusiastic educator the opportunity to experience the joys of the classroom. She continued to work with student teachers in foreign language at Fallston Middle School and Edgewood High School through Towson University. These days, she is living in Ocean Pines, Maryland, with her husband, Ron. She travels often and is trying to visit every state. She likes to enjoy national parks from the back of a Harley! She also spends time reading, exercising and being with good friends and family. Mrs. Inners has two sons, Tom and David Pomilla, and three grandsons, Chase, Cole and Caleb.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.