The Public Schools of Brookline
The John Pierce School
50 School Street
Brookline, Massachusetts 02445
Main Office: 617-730-2580
Fax: 617-264-6468
Pipier Smith-Mumford, Ph. D.
Principal
John Badger
Vice Principal
Daniel Green
Vice Principal
August 25, 2014
Dear Pierce Families,
It’s that time! This annual “welcome to the new school year” letter begins the formal process of preparing
for the start of school. I hope you have enjoyed the summer, as I certainly have. Now, it is time to put things in
high gear, and prepare for the new school year. Let me start by saying we eagerly await your arrival on Thursday,
September 4, when all students in grades 1-8 will have their first day of school. Half of our kindergarten
students will start on Thursday and the other half on Friday for a full day both days. Please remember that it
is important to arrive at Pierce at least five minutes before 8 am to allow for travel to the class and settling into seats.
Opening day is always exciting so please give yourself plenty of time to greet your friends and classmates. Teachers
will be expecting students a few minutes prior to the 8 am start time since instruction begins at 8 am. On the first
day, because we have moved some classes and added some new spaces, arriving a little earlier to be sure you can
easily find your class is also encouraged to lessen any jitters or first day anxiety. Parent volunteers and staff will help
direct you if needed. Also, don’t forget our school time schedule, Mondays-Thursdays, 8:00 am-2:30 pm and
Fridays, 8:00 am-1:40 pm.
Many of Pierce teachers have already begun to put their classrooms together and have sent or are sending
letters to welcome you and your child to the new school year. The transition from lazy summer days to busy school
days has started in earnest for many of us. There are important dates included in this letter that we hope will assist in
your preparations.
As we welcome the new school year, we have many new faces to also welcome to Pierce. Please help me
greet twelve staff members new to Pierce and four additional staff returning in new roles! First, let me start by
welcoming back Emily Adams, Julie Dananberg, Dawn Galolo, Amanda Grindstaff and Jenny Yee, as we had a
bumper crop of new babies joining the Pierce family. We congratulate them and welcome them back. Our four
familiar faces in new positions: Andrew Winston, now the teacher of our 5th section of kindergarten. Having been a
kindergarten and first grade paraprofessional for several years here, Andrew completed his master’s program, and we
welcome him back as kindergarten teacher; Katrina Regan joining us officially as our new 2nd grade teacher,
replacing Annie Connors who moved to a new position in another district. We wish her well, and we congratulate
Katrina who was student teacher with Jenny Yee in the fall and then took over the 2Y class as their long term sub
during Jenny’s maternity leave; Ben Morse now moving to 6th grade English after finishing his first year teaching
English at 7/8; and Mikaela Newell, who is looping to 1st grade with her kindergarten students to make up the fifth
section.
Our twelve new staff comes from near and far. Three of these positions are newly created. We thank the
district for that additional support. We have a second vice principal, Daniel Green, joining the Pierce team from the
social studies department at Brookline High. Dan has been teaching there the last 7 years and did his administrative
internship at the Runkle School. We are so pleased to have Dan onboard. The other new positions are the teacher
facilitator, Hannah Whitshapter, who comes to us having been a learning specialist at the Kipp Academy in Lynn
for the last two years. This role supports both special education and general education students and teachers. We’re
excited to have this additional support and eager to work with Hannah. We have a part time nurse, Jana Young,
joining Nurse Mary D’Amore. Jana has been a substitute nurse in the district the last few years. We are so pleased
to have her on the team. Our new literacy specialist is Laura Lechner who worked as a literacy specialist at Driscoll
last year covering a one year leave. Alison Hansel is our new math specialist who comes to us from Heath School as
a 5th grade teacher. Gretchen Plamondon will be our new PE and Health teacher. She taught health at Driscoll
School this past year as a long term sub. We have Ceara Yahn joining us as our part time art teacher. Ceara worked
at Lawrence School as a long term sub the last two years. We happily welcome Laura, Alison, Gretchen, and Ceara
to our school community. Emily Follett joins us as our 6th grade social studies teacher. She hails from the Duggan
Middle School in Springfield, Ma. having taught middle school social studies for five years, and recently serving as
their Dean of Students . We look forward to working with Emily. I am very pleased to welcome ChunMei Du as
our Mandarin teacher. ChunMei is coming to us part time while also teaching part time at Weston High School.
ChunMei is an accomplished artist as well as an experienced Mandarin teacher. We are thrilled to have her join the
Pierce School community. Tawny Desjardins will be coming onboard in December as our new 4-8 guidance
counselor when Kim Manasevit‘s retirement begins. Tawny has nine years’ experience as a guidance counselor,
primarily, in the Fairfax, Va. School district. Please stop by the main to meet our two new members of the office
team and see our newly reconfigured set up. Mona Saltalamacchia is our new school secretary. She comes to us
from the special education department at Town Hall and was secretary at the Sperber Education Center (SEC) prior
to that Mona is also a Pierce graduate and has already shared fond memories of being a student here. Kitty
(Kathleen) Gibbons, is our new part time secretary. She joins us having worked at the Holy Name School in West
Roxbury for the last 14 years. I am so very excited to welcome them to the Pierce office team. We welcome all of
our new and returning staff members for a promising new school year. I know I can count on you to help extend this
welcome from our Pierce families throughout the school year.
I’m happy to welcome back our PTO co-chairs, Jennifer Amigone, Jennifer Rothstein and Deb
Troterman. We also welcome new treasurer, Mariah Nobreiga, and thank outgoing treasurer, Stacey Zelbow, for
serving so well in this important role. PTO teacher rep is David Weinstein (1st grade) and I am hoping to have an
upper grade teacher join us. I thank David and Dawn Galolo who served in this role the year before her maternity
leave for their participation, as teacher voices at our monthly meetings are essential.
The district continues to support our growing enrollment by helping us transform some existing spaces to
classrooms. We again welcome 5 sections of kindergarten, our largest grade by far! For the first time in recent
memory (over 15 years) we also have 5 sections of first grade! Again, as it was last year, help will be provided to
find some of the new classrooms and the different spaces that some teachers now occupy. New signage should help
everyone identify these spaces. We had a new slate roof installed on the Historical Building and that was completed
as planned. Ongoing work continues on the delivery area at the back of the cafeteria and near the School Street
entrance into the cafeteria. All of that work is scheduled to be completed this weekend, barring any unforeseen
problems. Fingers crossed! Look for updates in The Bridge (our weekly PTO newsletter), as we keep you all
informed of this work.
I hope to see many of you at our Community Welcome Breakfast, Friday, September 12th, 8-9 am in the
cafeteria. Any PTO announcements will be shared during this time. Then on Sunday, September 21st, we hope
you will all come out for our annual FitFest. This is a great event for the whole family.
Along with the PTO, the Pierce School Council offers the Pierce community another opportunity to
participate in the life of the school. We will elect a new co-chair at our first meeting this fall. Thanks to outgoing
co-chair, Jennie Roffman, for all her support during her tenure in this role. The School Council is an advisory body
to the principal and is primarily comprised of elected members of parents and school staff. We meet to discuss
school wide issues, review the school budget, assess goals, determine future goals and prepare school improvement
plans at the end of the year. Please look for a summary of this year’s goals in our first issue of the Bridge and on our
web site. Limited hard copies will also be available in the main office.
Please mark your calendars for Open House:
Kindergarten will be on the morning of Wednesday, September 17th starting at 7:30 am with a family
breakfast.
Grades 1-6 will host on the evening of Wednesday, the 17th at the following times:
5:30 pm for Grades 5 and 6
6:00 pm for Grades 1 and 2
6:30 pm for Grades 3 and 4
Grades 7/8 will be on Thursday, September 18th at 6:30 pm.
Open House is always a very important event where parents/guardians meet their child’s teacher(s) and learn about
the curriculum and classroom expectations. We look forward to your continued participation and support.
Please make plans to volunteer, participate and have a great time with your child(ren) during Pierce events.
We need your support to continue the great educational experiences Pierce offers. We are posting the Pierce
Calendar on the school website. I thank you in advance for continuing to play an active role in your child’s school
life.
Thanks for reading this long letter! Enjoy the remaining days of summer. Here’s wishing each of you a
smooth beginning to a great school year!
Sincerely,
Pipier Smith-Mumford
(P.S. Don’t forget to remind your child of their PIN number for lunch!)