Shelburne Community School welcomes new hires

As the new academic year dawns, the Shelburne Community School (SCS) is welcoming a number of new teachers and staff members.

Laura Smith is sharing duties with Jon Strazza as SCS’s special services co-director. Smith, who comes to SCS from the Hinesburg Community School (HCS), will also fill a similar position at HCS part-time.

Katie Tyler joins the SCS staff as the pre-K-fourth grade counselor. Prior to joining the Shelburne staff, Tyler worked in Vergennes. She may be familiar to families through her work at the Community School’s Planning Room. Rachael Oberst will coordinate that area.

Carah Deal has signed on to be long-term substitute for Emily Vigneault on TreeHouse Team. Vigneault is on maternity leave for the first semester of the year.

Firefly team members Deb Killkelley and Nancy Nakhleh are joined by Haley Blair as the third team member.

Monique Tetreault, who formerly worked as a SCS educator, is working alongside Bob Gurwicz on the fourth-grade team, Enterprise. She recently worked at Essex Elementary School.

A former Burlington School District special educator, Annie Dunn, is working on the fifth-grade teams.

On the middle school side, Sam Nelson, who used to work at People’s Academy in Morrisville, is teaching Humanities and social studies on the Winton Team with Lisa Phelps, Carly Bennett, Laurie Taylor and Katie Stansfield.

Wendy Hallock is bringing her social studies knowledge to Alpha Team, joining Meg O’Donnell, Devon Morrill, Jaime Fries and Leigh Petrucelli. The Holden Team, which includes teachers Maggie O’Toole, Eric Brunvand, David Southworth and Robin Halnon is welcoming special educator Lauren Goracy. Goracy came to SCS from Hinesburg mid-way through last school year.

Lucy Allen comes to SCS from Champlain Valley Union High School, where she was employed as a special educator. She will focus mainly on students assigned to Alpha and Holden teams.

Christina Kelsh has signed on to work as the new middle school music teacher and chorus director. She joins the SCS community after a successful stint at Westford School.  School administrators noted they are still working to fill a number of vacant para educator positions.