Schools Begins Tuesday

Classes start on Tuesday, Sept. 5. Classes at Monomoy Regional High School and Monomoy Regional Middle School begin at 8:45 a.m.; Chatham and Harwich Elementary Schools begins at 7:45 a.m. Kindergarten classes start Sept. 6, and pre-school begins Sept. 10. For a complete bus schedule, see elsewhere in this issue of The Chronicle or visit monomoy.edu.

Monomoy Regional School District Seeks Mentors For New Program

Monomoy Regional School District is launching a new mentoring program, Monomoy Lighthouse Leaders, and is seeking volunteer mentors. The Monomoy Lighthouse Leader mentoring program welcomes caring adults from the community to provide one-on-one connections with students. Opportunities are available at the elementary school, middle school, and high school levels. To learn more, contact Joy Jordan, MRSD Community Engagement Coordinator, at jjordan@monomoy.edu or 508-945-5140, ext. 1101.

Chatham Elementary Schools

New Teachers At Chatham Elementary:

Virginia Ohlson: Ms. Ohlson graduated this past spring from Emmanuel College Magna Cum Laude with a bachelor of arts in elementary education. She completed her student teaching at the Eliot K-8 Innovation School in Boston and was inducted into the Pi Lamda Theta (Education Honors Society) in 2018. Ms. Ohlson has a dual certification in elementary education and low moderate disabilities and will be working as an instructional assistant at CES.

Corrine DeSimone: Ms. DeSimone is a 2018 graduate of Fitchburg State University with a BS degree in elementary education and a minor in literature. She has pre-service and practicum experiences in grades one, two, three and also with pre-school. She will be working in kindergarten with Ms. Frommeyer's class.

Bridget Newhard: Ms. Newhard is a 2016 graduate of Bridgewater State University with a BA degree in physical education and a minor in special education. Her work experiences include positions with the Center of Autism and Related Disorders and as a residential counselor for Latham Centers. She is currently pursuing a certificate to become an board certified autism technician (BCAT) and then a registered behavioral technician (RBT). Ms. Newhard will be working as an instructional assistant.

Karen Hayes: Ms. Hayes is not new to our staff as she currently works as our after-school bus return monitor, but she has also accepted the role of our new lunch monitor. Along with her experience in the latter role, she has extensive experience in the business world and is "mom" to rising MRMS grade 5 and grade 7 students.

Frank Toppa: The new elementary music teacher has an undergraduate degree in music education and a minor in choral music from Hart College of Music in Hartford, Conn. He has also obtained two master degrees in music and musicology from University of Massachusetts and Boston University respectively. He began his teaching career on Cape, but has been working at Belmont Day School in Belmont since 2000. He will be staying on part-time with BDS, and we will be "job sharing" him with this system. Locally, he is part of the Chatham Town Band, is the music director for the UU Meetinghouse in Chatham, Cape Cod Community Orchestra, and more (toppatoons.blogspot.com/).

Harwich Elementary School

New teachers and staff at Harwich Elementary School this year include Jamie Fougere, grade two special education; Dr. John Graziano, school psychologist; Dr. Connie Hebert, reading teacher; Julia Fraser, instructional assistant; Jennifer Souza, instructional assistant; Holly Tavano, school nurse; Sharon Hughes, assistant principal; Laura Marcincuk, grade four classroom teacher; and Mary Trainor, cafeteria staff.

Monomoy Middle School

New Teachers At Monomoy Middle School:

Wyatt Sullivan, English language arts: A graduate of Temple University, he completed his student teaching at Charter High School for Architecture and Design in North Philadelphia, teaching design to underachieving and at-risk juniors in high school. Afterwards, he taught seventh grade history and Latin for two years at Charter Day School in Leland, N.C. before joining the MRMS staff last year as an instructional assistant.

Danielle Laferriere, reading: Ms. Laferriere holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and liberal arts from Emmanuel College in Boston, and she is currently pursuing a master’s degree in curriculum and teaching for elementary education at Boston University. She has several years of experience as a classroom teacher for Hayden-McFadden Elementary School in New Bedford, William E. Russell Elementary School in Boston, and Monomoy Regional Middle School.

Todd Schumacher, mathematics: Mr. Schumacher pursued his undergraduate degree at the University of Colorado at Boulder, earning a bachelor of arts degree in environmental studies and biology. He has also earned a master’s degree in media and public affairs from George Washington University. For the past three years, Mr. Schumacher has been teaching seventh grade math, science, and design at the Woodstock School in India, an International Baccalaureate boarding school located in the Himalayan foothills.

Jeremiah Nickerson, art: Mr. Nickerson holds a bachelor of arts degree in arts education from the University of Georgia and he is currently pursuing a master’s degree in creative arts from Bridgewater State University. He has experience teaching elementary students at Wixon Innovation School in Dennis and at the Ernest E. Just School in Tampa.

Jack Turnbull, art: Mr. Turnbull holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a master in teaching art education from the Massachusetts College of Art. He completed his student-teaching at Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Dorchester, and has several years teaching experience as a middle school teacher for the Clarence R. Edwards Middle School in Charlestown, where he taught students how to draw comics, create graphic novels, and animate.

Adam Legg, health and PE: Mr. Legg received his bachelor of science degree in physical education from Endicott College and, as part of their rigorous teacher-prep program, completed four student-teaching assignments at four different schools: Briscoe Middle School in Beverly; Hamilton-Wenham High School in Wenham; Salem Public High School; and Kennebunk Middle School in Kennebunk, Maine. In these varied roles, he earned a reputation for creating engaging lessons, for modeling a healthy lifestyle, for supporting disengaged and/or excluded students, and for maintaining a positive outlook and calm demeanor.

Jaclyn Buckley, special education: Ms. Buckley joins Monomoy from Ashland Middle School, where she served as a substantially-separate teacher working with the school’s intensive special needs population. She holds a bachelor of science degree in special education from the University of Connecticut and a master of arts degree in teaching special education from the same university.

Tara Gallagher, team chair: Ms. Gallagher joins the Monomoy team from Berlin High School, having served as a special education teacher for the last 16 years and as TEAM chair for the past nine. In those capacities, she enjoyed the opportunity to assist students with moderate learning disabilities, viewing their exceptionalities as opportunities for personal and professional growth and ensuring that she tailored her instruction based on their diverse goals, needs, interests, and learning styles.

Susan Whitcomb, counselor: Ms. Whitcomb earned a bachelor of arts in biology from Middlebury College and holds a master of social work degree from Boston College School of Social Work. She also earned a master of public health degree from Columbia University School of Public Health. Prior to joining the middle school staff, she served as a school adjustment counselor and social worker at Monomoy High School.

Kate Gregory, mental health counselor: Ms. Gregory is an employee of Gosnold on Cape Cod, which partnered with the Monomoy Regional Public Schools in 2017 to support mental health counseling in each of our schools and to provide counseling opportunities for students who are unable to access counseling sessions outside of school. Before coming to Monomoy Middle School, Ms. Gregory worked at Latham Centers in Brewster as a residential school counselor.

Monomoy High Schools

Here is a list of new teachers at Monomoy High this year: Nicole Camp, school psychologist; Katherine Clark, instructional assistant; Jane Costello, special education teacher; Shana Grogan, special education teacher; Kristin Groves, 8th grade math teacher; Alice Fabia, long term substitute – ELA teacher; Noël Martin, instructional assistant; Greg Mello, custodian; Trisha Mruz, instructional assistant; Caitlyn Mullins; speech and language pathologist; Aldona Pauliukonis, long term substitute – special education teacher; Michelle Sadarangani, instructional assistant; Sara Sears, nurse; Kim Simmons, custodian; Mark Stratil, physics teacher; Emily Viprino administrative assistant to athletic director.

 Nauset High School

Nauset Regional High School students recently participated in an intensive summer engineering program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology designed to introduce students to the fundamental concepts of emerging technologies.

The program, 2018 Beaver Works Summer Institute (BWSI), is a summer engineering program for talented high school seniors across the country. In July and August, students worked on complex hands-on projects, took online courses, and attended lectures presented by leading scientific researchers. The program was hosted by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Beaver Works Center, a Cambridge research center jointly chartered by MIT Lincoln Labs, the MIT School of Engineering, and the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Seven Nauset students participated in the innovative program, held both in Cambridge and at Nauset Public Schools: Samuel Carpenter, Thomas Harwood, Marie Tessier, William Brister, Benjamin Ellis, Spencer Grandlund, and Xavier Neil. The Nauset collaborating school program, called Warrior Works at Nauset Public Schools, serves to increase student access and understanding of the fundamentals of today’s sophisticated emerging technologies through rigorous project-based learning.

Three of the students attended the MIT program in Cambridge – Marie Tessier, an incoming senior, Samuel Carpenter and Thomas Harwood, both incoming juniors — and were among a select group of 198 students from the highest performing high schools in the nation. Marie completed a course entitled “Embedded Security and Hardware Hacking,” Thomas completed a course named “Build a CubeSat,” and Samuel completed a course entitled “Autonomous Cognitive Assistant.”

At the Warrior Works summer program held at Nauset Regional High School in North Eastham, students William Brister, Benjamin Ellis, Spencer Grandlund, and Xavier Neil, all incoming juniors, completed a course titled, “Unmanned Air System-Synthetic Aperture Radar,” teaching the students how to build and fly a custom drone and design a radar payload.