Jackie Travers, Bromfield’s newest physics teacher. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
Bromfield School psychologist Susan Downing.
Special education teacher Carley Monsen.
Special education teacher Tammy Route and her third-grade daughter, Courtney.
As classes begin this week, the Harvard public school system welcomes four new faculty members, and a fifth faculty member who is moving from the Bromfield School to Harvard Elementary School (HES).
At the Bromfield School, the new hires are a science teacher, a library and media specialist, and a psychologist. HES has two new special education teachers.
Jackie Travers will teach five sections of ninth-grade physics. She comes to Harvard after a number of years as an environmental engineer and a year of teaching at Concord-Carlisle Regional High School. “Teaching is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” Travers says. Her engineering work took her to many parts of the country, where she was involved in the investigation and cleanup of hazardous waste sites. Besides her regular course load at Concord-Carlisle, she taught an extra-curricular engineering seminar one evening a week. She notes that helping students understand and apply the scientific method fosters many career skills. Travers says she is looking forward to working in a smaller school district.
Lori Stalteri is Bromfield’s new library media specialist. She has worked in both public and college libraries in Massachusetts and spent five years as a school librarian in Columbus, Ohio. At the Ohio school, Stalteri organized a book club that met during the lunch hour and included both students and staff members. She’s excited about helping students “achieve technical and literacy skills” through the resources of the library. “Coming from a college library,” she explains, “I know what skills are expected of students” by the time they graduate from high school.
The school psychologist at Bromfield will be Susan Downing, whose experience includes providing psychological services for both inpatient and outpatient venues, as well as having a private practice. Her primary responsibility, she explained, will be offering the psychological testing and services related to individualized education programs. However, she says, “I suspect there will be more informal assistance going on as well” for students who are anxious about the various issues of school and adolescence. Downing expects to work closely with administrators and teachers who are concerned about students who have problems. “A learning problem often manifests as an ‘attitude’ at this age,” she notes.
At HES, Carly Monsen is a new special education teacher. Monsen received a Master of Education degree from Boston College in the field of moderate special needs. She has also completed training in several related fields, as well as having held internships in Newton and Allston.
Tammy Route, who worked in academic support last year at Bromfield, is moving to the elementary school, where she will focus on reading skills for students in the special education program. Before taking the job at Bromfield, Route was a teaching assistant in Leominster while earning a master’s degree in moderate special needs from Lesley University. Route explained that she will be using a nationally known phonemic reading program, in which she has advanced certification, with small groups of students.
