Key Points
- Dolores Tufariello will retire June 30 after 20 years leading Wilton Continuing Education.
- During her tenure, children’s programs grew by 285% and offerings expanded to serve residents of all ages.
- Community partnerships helped transform Continuing Education into a hub for learning, enrichment and connection.
Why It Matters: Thousands of Wilton residents have participated in programs shaped by Tufariello’s leadership. Her retirement marks the end of a period of significant growth that expanded educational and enrichment opportunities across generations.
When Dolores Tufariello took over as coordinator of Wilton Continuing Education 20 years ago, its before- and afterschool childcare program was offered out of a cart in each of the cafeterias of Miller-Driscoll and Cider Mill schools.
“We did not have dedicated space and we were only allowed to take a small percentage of families in the program because it was a program that was on a cart actually,” Tufariello recalled. “So we hired childcare instructors and they came every day at the two schools. They had loaded up their carts with supplies and wheeled it down to the cafeteria and that’s where they held the program.”
There was still homework time and play time outside. There were still crafts and very caring instructors who followed a routine.
“We had a structure in place that way, but we did not have dedicated space,” she said.
Fast forward to now, Wilton Continuing Education has dedicated space at both schools for its childcare program for ages K-5. Tufariello said she is also proud of the fact that the childcare instructors, once hourly employees, now have healthcare benefits.
“There’s been a lot of transformation,” Tufariello said. “There’s been a lot of growth, and it’s really been great.”
Now, after two decades leading that growth, Tufariello will retire June 30.
Since 2008, Tufariello said children’s programs — including before- and afterschool enrichment and activities, childcare and music — have grown by 285%, while the number of instructors has more than doubled.
The organization’s growth extended far beyond childcare and after-school programming. Under Tufariello’s leadership, Continuing Education evolved into a year-round learning resource serving residents of all ages, with offerings ranging from arts, photography, music and culinary classes to pickleball, Mah Jongg, driver’s education, STEM enrichment and summer programs.
Over those two decades, Continuing Education also added new culinary classrooms, and a dedicated kiln for its arts programs.
Wilton School Superintendent Kevin Smith said Tufariello has been an asset to the town who has been tuned into the needs and interests of the community and innovative in the way she develops programming.
“She has been an incredible partner and will be missed,” Smith said in an email.
What is clearly important to Tufariello is the community built as a result of the programs Continuing Education offers — often through collaboration with the Wilton Library, Wilton Senior Center, Parks and Recreation Department and local businesses.
“Collaboration with and partnering is the key to success,” Tufariello said. “That’s really what it is. You have to partner. I did inherit a good program. And we just tried to build on what we had and we just believe in the program and believe in the benefits of the program.”
Wilton’s Director of Social Services Stephanie Rowe, who also oversees the Wilton Senior Center, said she can’t imagine Continuing Education without Tufariello.
“When I think of Continuing Ed, I think of Dolores,” Rowe said. “It’s like they’re interchangeable.”
When Rowe started working as program coordinator in 2018, Tufariello had use of an art room at the senior center, and would provide art programs for the seniors there.
“Which was great because the Senior Center really didn’t have their own art program,” Rowe said.
The partnership also resulted in programs like Mahjong and knitting being offered at night for seniors who work during the day.
Rowe added that the programs Tufariello and Continuing Education offer help bridge the gap between generations.
“Like Mahjong, for example. Mahjong is hitting it off with every generation,” Rowe said. “Millennials are coming into the senior center being like, ‘Can we have a space?’”
Adults have many programs to choose from including pickleball, knitting, fine arts and photography, to name a few.
“They too are programs where adults can join a program, see if they like it, and then pursue it if they have an interest in it,” Tufariello said. “I think it is just very beneficial. It creates a community and that’s what we need.”
As far as the community helping out, Tufariello recalled how one area business helped her keep a knitting class going during COVID when the Zoom option wasn’t working too well.
The knitting instructor was trying to use the camera to focus right in on the knitting work, but it was too hard for the class — with students from a wide variety of skill levels — to follow. Then one of the knitters of the group, Margharet Hollander, owner of the Optical Shop of Westport, offered her shop as a place for the knitters to meet.
“You had to be separated by a certain distance. You had to wear a mask. You had to wash your hands, you know, all that stuff,” Tufariello said, but as long as people followed the COVID safety rules, they could take the class at the shop without interruption.
“So we continued the knitting in person,” she said. “And in a safe environment. She opened up her shop for us.”
In addition to the adult programs, Continuing Education’s youth offerings have expanded dramatically as well.
Beyond childcare, the program now offers enrichment activities, STEM classes, music, girls gymnastics, driver’s education and summer programs.
Tufariello said enrichment and activities — offered at Miller-Driscoll, Cider Mill, Middlebrook and Wilton High School — have grown exponentially over the past 20 years. What may once have been 20 total activities has grown to more than 20 offerings at both Miller-Driscoll and Cider Mill this spring, with another five at the middle school and three at the high school.
Tufariello said for both children and adults, the offerings allow people to try out certain classes to see if they like them.
Parents, for instance, have options to sign their children up for STEM classes.
“It gives them an opportunity to try these things out which is important developmentally because these programs that we offer, they’re not supposed to be competitive. So you have a relaxed educational environment where the kids are taking classes,” she said. “Then they decide, the kids themselves decide, ‘is this an area I want to pursue? Is this something I want to continue?’ If not, they can look at other areas. So that to me, I think is pretty important.”
Tufariello said Wilton has a great community, but Continuing Education also serves the surrounding towns as well.
“Anybody could come to the programs,” she said.
A Ridgefield resident, Tufariello said she plans on taking the summer off. But she then plans on working with Ridgefield’s Commission on Aging’s Senior Expo, an event that provides resources and information and is open to Ridgefield as well as surrounding towns.
“My belief is always that if towns work together, we make a better community,” Tufariello said. “So working together with towns, not just one town, makes for a better community. So that’s what I believe in.”
