Meet Our Staff
Our fabulous teachers come from diverse backgrounds and bring unique talents to the program. They strive to make BSED a welcoming and fun environment for all students. And with an average tenure of over a decade, our experienced teachers are second to none.
Janelle Conway, Co-Director
Janelle started at Baker School working in the office and found her way to the basement to join BSED 19 years ago. Her favorite activities to share with her students foster a sense of community, like zumba, or require practice to make progress, like knitting. She hopes these things will help bolster confidence in the children that they can carry with them as they grow. When Janelle is not at BSED she enjoys dancing, travelling, and spending time with her two little boys.
Kelsey Dullea, Co-Director
Kelsey is excited to be taking on a new role at BSED! She’ll be splitting time in the office and helping in the classrooms. She loves testing out new science experiments and researching new slime recipes that students are interested in! In her free time, she loves to travel and explore.
Ana Pitt, Kindergarten Lead Teacher
Ana is in her second year with Kindergarten after getting her start with BSED with our 3rd & 4th grade program. She loves working with kids and spends her summers as a camp councilor in New Hampshire. In school she was a competitive dancer and now enjoys doing dance choices with the kids. In her free time she likes going on walks and exploring new places.
Gail Shuttle, Kindergarten Teacher
Gail has been a teacher with BSED for the better part of 30 years. When she’s not coming up with fun and creative activities for the students in her program, Gail can often be found helping out with the children’s bell choir at the Littleton First Baptist church. Gail loves to travel and has done several mission trips to exotic locations all over the world. Her personal philosophy on teaching is that sometimes you just have to let children be children.
Mona Pollack, Kindergarten Teacher
Mona is passionate about making our program as inclusive, accessible, and supportive for every child as possible! She loves the after-school setting because it allows room for kids to choose what they want to learn and direct their own learning, and gives them more flexibility to play, to be themselves, and to learn how to be in community with each other. She likes tailoring her projects and lessons to the students' individuality, making sure all our kids have opportunities to share and teach about what makes them who they are with the rest of the group.
Kelsey Raymond, Kindergarten Teacher
As a former BSED student herself, Kelsey is so excited to help new students experience the same quality of care that she experienced, including lasting friendships, skills that they will use for years to come, and memories that will stay with students for the rest of their lives. She loves to make crafts, play games, and enjoys all things cute and colorful. She’s looking forward to another great year! Go Bulldogs!
Zach Smith, 1st & 2nd Grade Lead Teacher
Zach is the program coordinator for our 1st and 2nd grade program. He enjoys playing the piano as well as teaching children how to make short, simple movies. Zach, the parent of 2 children of his own, believes in the importance of ensuring that all of the students in his program arrive knowing that the teachers are happy to see them, that they have a safe and fun place to relax, that the teachers truly value all the ways they are surprising and unique, and that the teachers are listening and interested. In this way Zach hopes to provide each and every student an environment where they can feel engaged and empowered.
Colby Pitt, 1st & 2nd Grade Teacher
Colby is a teacher in our 1st & 2nd grade program. He enjoys cooking, spending time with his cats, and working on his Miata. He hails from Connecticut but is loving Massachusetts and BSED!
Lamonte Bond, 1st & 2nd Grade Teacher
Welcome to the team, Lamonte!
Abigail Sledd, 1st & 2nd Grade Teacher
Abby is a new member of the BSED team; she started with the Kindergarten team at the end of last school year and is with the 1st and 2nd grade team this year. She is a lover of all things creative, and spends her mornings working as a bookseller. She is passionate about hands on learning and creative exploration to develop tactile and thinking skills. She is a fan of crocheting, playing D&D, writing books and plays, and performing in theatre productions. She is a fairly recent transplant from Alabama, and is excited to experience all that Massachusetts has to offer.
Serrah Brown, 1st & 2nd Grade Teacher
Serrah loved helping kids explore the world around them through engineering, art, and science. In her spare time she watches a lot of movies. Reading and storytelling are her favorite hobbies!
Carly Slaybaugh, 1st & 2nd Grade Teacher
It is Carly’s first year at BSED. As a recent psychology graduate Carly utilizes a nurturing approach to understanding the needs of every child. In her free time she likes to go for walks and play pickle ball. She also likes to explore new areas and coffee shops. When she’s not outside, she likes to do crafts like coloring and knitting.
Lesley Lake, 3rd & 4th Grade Lead Teacher
Lesley is the program coordinator for the 3rd & 4th grade program. She is a talented artist and passionate about dance and theatre. Lesley believes that every child is unique and interesting and enjoys getting to know each one of them. Lesley loves creating fun and imaginative environments for the BSED students to play and grow in.
Hakeem McKoy, 3rd & 4th Grade Teacher
Keem loves working with the children of our future. He emphasizes hands-on activities and differentiated instruction to meet the needs of each unique student. When he’s not teaching he enjoys reading, sports, and spending time with family. Keem is excited to partner with parents and students for a successful school year!
Daniel Primilsky, 3rd & 4th Grade Teacher
Daniel is starting his second year at BSED, this year with the Third and Fourth Grade Team! His choices revolve around arts and crafts and physical activity games. During choice time Daniel can often be found on the tennis courts on sunny days, or in a glittery explosion in the craft room. In his personal time Daniel enjoys painting and going on runs.
Eve Hide, 3rd & 4th Grade Teacher
Eve takes great care in planning activities for students with strong, focused interests. She constructs many of her activities around kickstarting and furthering students' hunger to learn-- particularly about nature, food, music, language, and art. Eve introduces iterative and multidisciplinary design to her creative activities, setting students up for a future as artisans and experts! With a measured and personal approach to behavior management, she provides clarity to students about why rules and expectations exist such that they use their own sense of empathy to build the foundations of understanding responsibility. Outside of the school environment, she spends much of her time creating and learning, with a particular focus on music production and linguistics. With her broad range of interests and her own drive to learn, she brings many skills and chances for connection with students to the classroom!
Ariana Bovoso, 3rd & 4th Grade Teacher
Ariana is thrilled to be with the kids as BSED this year! She loves connecting with students and giving everyone a warm smile at the start of their day. She loves art, vocabulary, Dungeons and Dragons, and spending time with her pet tarantula.
Conor Howell, 3rd & 4th Grade Teacher
Conor is excited to start the new year at BSED and is looking forward to a great year! He graduated with a degree in business administration from the University of Massachusetts Lowell with a concentration in management. Conor loves to play and watch all sports and hopes to share that passion with the kids!
Adelenny Irizarry, 3rd & 4th Grade Teacher
David Flick, 5th & 6th Grade Co-Lead Teacher
David is the program coordinator for the 6th & 7th grade program. He graduated from the University of Miami where he studied Motion Pictures and Adolescent Psychology. Utilizing the principles of Positive Youth Development, David hopes to equip students enrolled in BSED with the proper coping skills necessary to ensure resiliency and encourage confidence. During his summers, David is also the head of the Video Department at Creative Arts at Park.
Meaghan Darling, 5th & 6th Grade Co-Lead Teacher
Meaghan is truly versatile and has moved up to 5th & 6th grade after much of her time with BSED has been with the lower elementary grades. She graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in film so she is a real cinafile. She is a nerd who loves star wars, comic books, and dragons. She likes to cook and bake with the children. Meaghan is an animal lover who enjoys spending time with her dog Khaleesi. She also enjoys reading and writing and encourages the kids to do the same!
Jen Lindblom, 5th & 6th Grade Teacher
Jen loves cooking and experimenting with foods and new recipes with the students at BSED. In addition to being a teacher, Jen is also an avid tennis player.
Calvin O’Neil, 5th & 6th Grade Teacher
Calvin is excited to be in his first full year of teaching at BSED! He is a proud nerd who has an appreciation for all narrative media, as well as a psychology graduate who has a love for understanding the all the unique aspects of individuals that make them human. He wishes to help encourage this curiosity in the kids he works with through a variety of fun and thought-provoking activities.
Cristina Ruiz, Team Support
Cristina is a preservice teacher who is in her last year at Lesley University. She had been working with kids for more than 6 years, in different settings. Cristina believes in the importance of hands-on learning and creativity, striving to inspire curiosity and a love for discovery in every child. Outside of teaching, she enjoys all activities in nature and is sure to bring her dog along. You might see Cristina working in every classroom, because she is our superstar team support! We couldn’t do it without her!
Bobby Uttaro, Substitute
Bobby Uttaro (Mr. U) has been teaching throughout Brookline for the past 10 years and lending his skills to BSED for most of that time too. One of his favorite activities at BSED is cooking with so many kids of different cultural backgrounds. Bobby loves playing games, learning new recipes, listening to music and seeing live concerts. You’ll see Mr. U supporting all of our teams this year! He’s the BSED Team Superhero!