A dozen newcomers are joining the faculty, staff, and administration in the Harvard schools this year. This article focuses on a new member of the district’s leadership team and on six others who will be new classroom teachers at the Bromfield School. In the coming weeks, the Press will feature other new arrivals who are joining the schools in various roles, from counselors to school nurse.
Michelle DellaValle. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
DellaValle joins leadership team to direct pupil services
Michelle DellaValle brings 16 years of experience in special education to her position as the new director of pupil services for the Harvard school district—seven years as teacher and nine as an administrator in the Bedford public schools.
DellaValle is a Massachusetts native who grew up in Wellesley and Lancaster, graduating from Nashoba Regional High School. Shortly after receiving a bachelor’s degree with a major in psychology from UMass Amherst, she went west and earned a master’s in education at the University of Nevada. After exploring the country for a while, she said, she came home to Massachusetts. While working in Bedford, she also earned a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in educational leadership and management at Fitchburg State University in 2021.
DellaValle spoke highly of the “dedicated, passionate educators” she is meeting in the Harvard schools. Asked if she misses working directly with kids in the classroom, DellaValle said she still expects to have considerable contact with individual students. The most important part of her job, she said, is “identifying the unique needs of each child.” That work involves crafting individualized education plans (IEPs) and collaborating with classroom teachers. It also involves administrative work such as filing compliance documents with the state and sometimes also arranging for student transportation.
With additional support, DellaValle explained, kids with learning challenges can stay in classes with their learning-typical peers. Over the years, she said, she has seen kids become much more accepting of other children with unique needs. “They are so much kinder now,” she said.
Hao Zeng.
Hao Zeng will teach high school sciences
Hao Zeng feels compelled to “unveil the majesty of science to all my students,” believing that with greater knowledge, students are better equipped to lead a “vibrant, rich life.” Her students at Bromfield will be juniors taking chemistry and 10th-graders in biology.
Zeng came to the teaching profession from a varied background. She graduated from Lehigh University in 2001 with a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical chemistry, having come to the U.S. from China with a bachelor’s degree in medicine. She did postdoctoral training at Yale Medical School and later worked in a community hospital in Worcester. She was recruited to teach at a prestigious Chinese medical school in Shanghai.
After several years, she returned to the U.S. and was a stay-at-home mom for her son. When he started elementary school, she enrolled in the post-baccalaureate teaching licensure program at Framingham State. The pandemic created obstacles, but she completed her program, including fieldwork and student teaching. She said she chose the field of education because she wanted a career that could positively impact our society. She believes that “education can shape minds and hearts, and it is the driving force for nations and societies to move forward in all areas, from science and technology to arts and spirituality.”
While the large classes at Newton North High School gave her the challenge of teaching “efficiently,” Zeng said the smaller classes at Bromfield will help her to teach more “effectively,” having more time with each of her students.
Alicia Safier.
Alicia Safier joins high school English faculty
Alicia Safier will be teaching three sections of ninth-grade English, one section of 11th-grade American literature, and a public speaking elective that is open to all grades. She comes to the Bromfield School from Belmont High, where she taught English for 12 years. In a recent email, she wrote that she is looking forward to getting to know her students and their families in Harvard: “The smaller class size will allow me to give my students plenty of individualized attention, which is so important to effective teaching and learning.”
After receiving her bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, Safier began her teaching career tutoring students in math and English support classes at Billerica High School. She left after a year to attend the Harvard for the Mind, Brain, and Education master’s program. She said the most powerful lesson she took away from the graduate program was that we all learn in different ways, so there’s no “fits-all approach,” and the job of educators is to make a curriculum accessible and engaging for all different learning styles.
Safier returned to Billerica for two years and taught 11th- and 12th-grade British literature and honors world literature. She also created and advised a writing center for struggling student writers. Later, at Belmont High School, she taught both college preparatory and honors classes.
The family recently moved from Medford to Acton, and her two children attend elementary school in Acton. Safier wanted to work closer to home. She said she is committed to engaging students in “dynamic” conversations about course texts that feel relevant and at the same time offer new perspectives. She views literature as “a vessel for how we come to understand ourselves.” She believes “making mistakes is an important part of the learning process,” and “being willing to revise our work is key to becoming better readers and writers.”
Jacob Morese.
Morese will teach middle school music
Jacob Morese plays drums, and he has also taught piano, saxophone, trumpet, and more in private lessons. He will join Bromfield’s music department to teach band, choir, and theater at the middle school.
Morese majored in music education at the Berklee College of Music and went on to earn a master’s degree in historical musicology at Boston University. Besides giving private lessons, he has been a substitute teacher in the Manchester, New Hampshire, public schools. As a student teacher, he taught at both the elementary and high school levels. At Newton North High School, he taught and observed a wide range of classes including film scoring, the history of rock, jazz ensemble, and music technology.
“I believe that every student has an ability and great potential in learning music,” Morese wrote in his letter of application. He pointed out that music also helps students develop many life skills—“teamwork, patience, dedication, and responsibility.”
At Bromfield, Morese plans to include at least one listening activity every week, where students can hear and react to music from different eras and cultures. He also hopes to expand the jazz program and bring it back within school hours. In his first months, he said, he will be focused on “meeting the students where they are.” And, he emphasized, “It is never too late to pick up an instrument.”
Ryan Colarossi.
Colarossi plans civic projects
Since 2018, Massachusetts has required all eighth-grade civics classes to incorporate at least one student-led, nonpartisan project that promotes students’ abilities to research and analyze an issue, take into account differing points of view, and support claims with factual evidence and logical arguments. Whether students work individually or in groups, Ryan Colarossi said he plans to make such projects a major part of the civics classes he will teach this year.
Colarossi grew up in Stow but went to college at James Madison University in Virginia, where he majored in history for his bachelor’s degree and then earned a Master of Arts in teaching. His student teaching experience was also in Virginia, at both a high school and a middle school.
Besides his four classes of civics, Colarossi will also be a homeroom co-teacher. Under the new middle school schedule, students will return to their homeroom at the end of the day for the WYN-WIN period of enrichment, support, or other individualized work, which homeroom teachers will oversee.
Colarossi sees the timing as good for encouraging students’ interest in civics, with the upcoming presidential primaries and the 2024 election. “It’s pretty cool that my first year of teaching is going to be an election year,” he said.
Barrett becomes full-time special education teacher
Samantha Barrett is a familiar face at the Bromfield School, having worked with students there since 2018. She has been a learning assistant at Bromfield since shortly after her graduation from UMass Amherst, where she majored in linguistics. Subsequently she has been working toward a master’s degree in education at Fitchburg State, focusing on working with students who have moderate learning disabilities. She expects to complete that degree in December.
Since 2021 Barrett has been the academic coordinator for the STAAR program at Bromfield, a program designed to support students who are returning to school after long absences and need to catch up. In her role as learning assistant, she also worked with special education teachers.
“I believe in providing students the support that they need to thrive, while also challenging them to reach their potential and goals,” Barrett wrote in her application letter.
Casey Libonate.
Casey Libonate will be ELA teacher in sixth grade
Casey Libonate, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, will be teaching sixth grade at Bromfield as a long-term English language arts substitute. As stated in her resume, she can “immediately bring to the table analytical skills and experience.”
Libonate’s experience has been at Roxbury Prep in Boston, a part of Uncommon Schools, a charter school management organization that operates in New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. She has been a sixth-grade teacher and member of the leadership team at the school. Her job centered on obtaining performance data and creating plans to improve outcomes. Most recently she has been coaching teachers to improve the school’s Guided Reading program; she said the program had 20% growth over the past year.
Whether working with students or teachers, Libonate said she believes that “data needs to be at the center of our work in order to ensure the best outcomes for our students.” Throughout the year, teachers need to assess students and “keep pinpointing small gaps and re-teaching the skills to fill them, using the data to keep progressing.” Her experience with doing that has resulted in proven improvements for her sixth-graders, she said.
In an email, Libonate said she is excited to be teaching at Bromfield, and “I think it’s going to be a wonderful year, and I’m especially excited to be a part of such a wonderful community.”
