June 20, 2024 | By Sally Kulis

As the 2023-24 school year came to a close, students, staff and families said farewell to a number of teachers departing local schools. Some faculty are moving on due to retirements, some are resigning to take other positions, and some are pursuing new interests.

*Brookside Primary School. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti*

Below is a look at some of the folks wrapping up their time at Brookside Primary School and Crossett Brook Middle School.

In addition, Harwood Union Middle/High School will see several retirements and resignations. Retiring this year are former English teacher Steve Rand who served as travel study coordinator this past year; STEM teacher Brian Wagner; and middle school science teacher Wendy Moore, who previously taught at Crossett Brook Middle School. Resignations at Harwood include Art Teacher Krista Verriotto, Special Educators Anna Duffy and Cassie Grossman, Nurses Teal Church and Rebecca Simon, and Math Interventionist Tara Priddy.

At its June 12 meeting, the Harwood Unified Union School Board accepted a memo from the district administration listing 19 new hires for 2024-25 across the district along with several staff reassignments, retirements and resignations.

Brookside Primary School

Brookside sees three longtime educators retiring this year: Physical Education Teacher Carol Baitz, Speech/Language Pathologist and Early Essential Educator Judy Mulhern, and Special Educator Brenda Ververis.

Carol Baitz

After 37 years of teaching, Carol Baitz is retiring as Brookside Primary School’s physical education teacher. Throughout her career, Carol taught in several schools across Vermont and also in Florida. Luckily for local students, teachers and families, she was Brookside Primary School’s PE teacher for the last 27 years!

You only need to see Carol teach once to recognize her boundless enthusiasm for PE. And over the years, she shared that enthusiasm with her students through multiple innovative programs:

A partnership with Burton brought snowboards to Brookside. On a snowy day, seeing students glide across the hill near the playground brings a smile to everyone’s face!
A grant from the American Heart Association helped Carol purchase bikes from Waterbury Sports for Brookside students to use. To store all the bikes, Carol also secured a grant from Kohl’s to purchase a trailer.
Mileage Club and then Morning Recess encouraged students to participate in daily physical activity. Both of these efforts gave students the opportunity to get some exercise and socialization before beginning academic lessons for the morning.
Girls on the Run which Carol brought to Brookside and then coached for 10 years.
Carol helped organize and run with Waterbury LEAP the Bike and Walk to School events for years. To raise awareness about the environment, students and families from Brookside and Crossett Brook were encouraged to use their feet and bikes instead of their cars to get to school.
Carol instituted a sneaker exchange where families could donate outgrown sneakers. Any time a student had forgotten their sneakers, Carol could provide them with something comfortable to wear so they could participate in PE lessons and/or recess.

Carol Baitz with students at the Brookside school garden on Thursday, June 13, the last full day of the school year. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti

Carol Baitz at one of many primary school Spring Celebrations. Photo by Gordon Miller

Baitz taught students the maypole dance. Photo by Gordon Miller

And she joined in. Photo by Gordon Miller

Carol Baitz staffs a holiday Gifts for Giving gift-making station where students made gifts for family and friends. Photo by Gordon Miller

Carol Baitz, undated photo from the files of Gordon Miller

Over the course of her career, Carol mentored several student teachers as they pursued their dream of becoming physical education teachers. “It was an honor to mentor the next generation of physical educators,” Carol said.

Those interns are now teaching PE all around the state of Vermont.

In addition to all this, Carol has been a generous and supportive colleague – always willing to collaborate on special projects. Her presence at Brookside will surely be missed but with her never-ending energy, she is certain to find joy in future retirement pursuits.

Judy Mulhern

After decades of shepherding our community’s youngest students to start their educational careers, Judy Mulhern leaves Brookside this year.

Seeing Judy in the presence of a young child, you knew she truly enjoyed helping them. And the gleam in the students’ eyes said they understood her caring manner. You could hear Judy’s laugh coming down the hallway as she chatted with a youngster.

Judy is certified as a Speech and Language Pathologist, and she also worked for the HUUSD district as an Essential Early Education teacher. In that role, she was a strong advocate for students. Families understood Judy’s professionalism and students benefited from her tireless work on their behalf. Her colleagues will miss Judy’s collaboration and years of experience as an invaluable resource.

Brenda Ververis

Brenda Ververis is retiring from Brookside Primary School after teaching as a special educator for 37 years. For the first three years of her career, Brenda worked at Eden Central School. She started teaching in Waterbury in 1989 and during her 34-year tenure she helped the school transition from Waterbury Elementary School to Thatcher Brook Primary School and eventually to Brookside Primary School.

In Brenda’s years as a special educator she helped countless children achieve educational success. Brenda has an endless well of energy and enthusiasm and is skilled at supporting students with any level of need – always putting them first.

Her colleagues will miss her passion for the field of special education and her willingness to tackle tasks beyond the school day. She took on the challenge of managing multiple systems for Brookside Primary School and was the point person for many programs.

Brenda started the Family Reading Program and ran it for a decade. Participating families received four free books to read and then gathered together for an evening celebration and book discussion. To support this program, Brenda organized a book sale, a craft fair and a silent auction.

Using adventure-based learning, Brenda organized Adventure Camp for many decades. Students participated in team building activities, which helped them gain confidence and learn leadership skills. Each Adventure Camp culminated with an overnight camping trip.

A memory that surely endures for students and faculty alike is Brenda’s leading of what has been known as the school song: “It’s in Every One of Us.” Brenda taught not only the words to the song, but also American Sign Language to accompany it. The lyrics of the song encourage folks to recognize the interconnectedness among us all. The song ends with all participants linking fingers to symbolize their connection and a cheer that reminds all to take that sentiment with them throughout their days.

In retirement, Brenda hopes to pursue travel and reading and she looks forward to spending more time with her family.

Other Brookside teacher and staff departures

Rebecca Chartrand

Rebecca Chartrand has been the French teacher at Brookside for six years. A world language teacher since 2007, she is dual-certified in French and Spanish.

Rebecca pioneered World Language at Brookside and made language learning fun for her students. She said she is particularly proud of the collaboration with music teacher Lizzy Palumbo and art teacher Rachael Wells to integrate French language education into music and art. She leaves at the end of this school year due to school district budget cuts that ended the World Language program at the K-6 grade levels.

Lizzy Palumbo

Brookside Primary school has been lucky to have Lizzy Palumbo as its music teacher for the last eight years. Lizzy began the chorus program at Brookside in 2017 and participation steadily increased – this year 79 student singers participated.

Through the Artists in Residence program, Lizzy invited musicians to visit Brookside to share their expertise knowledge with her students. Faculty and students will likely miss Lizzy’s always-smiling face and hearing her beautiful voice floating through the school. Lizzy is leaving Brookside due to health issues that have affected her ability to teach. She will pursue other professional opportunities that allow her to rest her voice and heal.

Kendra Renz

Kendra Renz has worked in the Harwood school district for 10 years.

She started out as a seventh grade math teacher at Harwood Union Middle School and for the last three years, she taught at Brookside as a math interventionist.

Although she says she is sad to leave the Harwood district, she is excited to be headed to teach at Porters Point School in Colchester, where her own children go to school.

Sage Tallman

Sage Tallman is leaving Brookside Primary School to explore other educational pursuits. Sage has been a teacher for 16 years having begun her career in Barre City as a grade 1-2 teacher. While teaching, Sage enrolled in and completed a Masters in Literacy program.

She came to Brookside nine years ago as a literacy interventionist. In that role, she has helped countless children with their reading and writing skills. For the 2020-21 school year, Sage was the second-grade teacher for the Harwood school district’s online school during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sage is currently working toward a further professional endorsement as a literacy specialist.

Shannon Tucker

Shannon Tucker has been a special educator at Brookside Primary School for four years.

She is extremely thoughtful in her practice and has a gift for learning new things and adapting to the needs of her changing workload. Shannon's smile always lights up a room.

Shannon is moving on to pursue a career as a clinical mental health counselor.

Brookside also says goodbye to the following paraprofessional staff members who have worked tirelessly on behalf of students: April Barrone, Alexa Bourbonnais, Owen Duffy, Evan Kirk and Aimee Smith.

April Barrone

Alexa Bourbonnais

Owen Duffy

Evan Kirk

Aimee Smith

Finally, two staffing shifts at Brookside for next year will have Martin Casey moving from teaching first grade to PE, succeeding Carol Baitz. First grade teacher Amy Bryant will move to a Special Educator/Essential Early Education position.

Crossett Brook Middle School

Constancia Gomez

Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Constancia Gomez came to Vermont to work as a ski instructor but soon found she was needed as a Spanish tutor at Green Mountain Valley School in Waitsfield.

This year she has worked as a Spanish substitute teacher at Crossett Brook Middle School and said she has enjoyed integrating dance into Spanish lessons. She will miss the supportive culture at Crossett Brook all of her colleagues, and the enthusiasm of the students, she shared.

Constancia has many interests to pursue next. She owns LaLu Goat Farm in Warren and will continue to care for her goats, make cheese, and along with her goats travel to provide educational programming throughout Vermont and New York.

She is also interested in organizing Spanish language trips and plans to travel to India to attain her yoga certification. She said she hopes to stay in touch with the Crossett Brook community.

Erica Guralnick

Erica Guralnick has taught Science at Crossett Brook Middle School for one year.

She leaves to take a position as science teacher at Lamoille Middle School.

Dan Gratton

In 2020, Dan Gratton retired as Crossett Brook Middle School’s longtime physical education and health teacher. He had been at CBMS for 23 years and previously taught for nine years at Waterbury Elementary School (now Brookside Primary School).

This year, after having done some substitute teaching, he decided to rejoin the staff full-time as a student support specialist. In that role, he formed many important relationships with students. He said he will miss those students as well as the collegial spirit at Crossett Brook.

Next year, Dan will continue to coach junior varsity girls soccer at Harwood Union High School.

Katie Kenney

Katie Kenney has been teaching for 15 years. She began her career as a kindergarten teacher in Colorado and then segued to special educator. She has been at Crossett Brook Middle School for 10 years, eight of those in special education.

During the last two years, she has been the Flexible Pathways Coordinator at Crossett where she designed and implemented the state’s only Flexible Pathways program for middle school. As a result of this program, students were exposed to the many different educational paths available to them. There was an increase in ninth-grade students applying to attend Central Vermont Career Center in Barre and more ninth-graders signing up for different opportunities at the high school level.

She will continue in a similar role next school year at Montpelier High School.

Dan Liptak

After 11 years building a statewide-recognized chorus/band program at Crossett Brook Middle School along with chorus teacher Milly Dubois, band teacher Dan Liptak is leaving to pursue other interests.

During his tenure, the Crossett Brook music program was remarkably inclusive with more than 50% of the student body participating! His rapport with his students is one of mutual respect. As jazz band leader, he has taken that ensemble to participate at statewide events every year for the past 10 years.

Dan is excited to be able to spend more time with his young family and he is looking forward to having more time to run the painting business he’s had since 2016.

Music education and performance will continue to be a big part of Dan’s life, however. Keep an eye out for Dan at The Phoenix in Waterbury as he hopes to play music locally.

Sarah Pulaski

Sarah has been teaching for 23 years and since 2022 she has been a literacy interventionist at Crossett Brook. In this role, she has enjoyed supporting students’ learning and growth.

Sarah says she has appreciated her time at CBMS where she has been surrounded by supportive and caring students, educators, administrators, and community members.

She is leaving CBMS to be a literacy interventionist at Craftsbury Elementary School.

Waterbury resident Sally Kulis is a former Brookside Primary School teacher. Our thanks to her for assembling this piece.

So long, farewell ... to teachers moving on from local schools