New Staff at CHS

By Ella Paul, 2024

Published 9/16/22

This year, Cheshire High School welcomed a multitude of new teachers and staff members to the building, all of whom are excited to bring their experience, insight, expertise, and passion to their new roles at CHS. We are thrilled to welcome such wonderful people to our school community, and they are very excited to join us.

These new faculty were individually asked three questions, and many were happy to extend answers to help their future students get to know them. The first was a fun fact about themself, the second was what they were most excited for beginning their journey at CHS, and the third was their advice to future students whom they work with.

First, there is Mr. Devine, who is teaching in the CTE department to share his passion for woodworking with the student body. A fun fact is that when he was in college at UConn, he practiced with the women’s basketball team and used to play pick up with a bunch of guys from the men's team. He is most excited about teaching a new subject at a new grade level and sharing his love of woodworking with the students. He has two pieces of advice for his students, the first being “Don't be afraid of failure. It can lead to incredible learning opportunities.” and the second, “Don't be afraid to try something new. You may discover something that you really enjoy and something about yourself.”

Ms. Heller is an intern in the music department. She is a CHS alumnus who is happy to come back and connect with her students through their love of music. She shared the fun fact that she actually founded the Cheshire Varsity Bocce Club here at CHS when she was a student. Ms. Heller is most excited about rejoining the school community, only this time through a teacher’s lens as well as getting to know her students through creating music. One piece of advice she extends to her current and future students is that “Everything happens for a reason. Keep pushing yourself to achieve your goals, and when the road inevitably becomes a little bumpy, learn from those bumps, and keep going! We’re all where we need to be.”

Miss Romaniello is an intern in our English department who is looking forward to being a part of the CHS student body in more ways than just teaching. She is a triplet, which is a very fun fact, and is commonly asked if she and her siblings look alike, but they surprisingly do not! And despite attending three different high schools, they reunited to all go to the same college. She is most excited to gain more classroom experience and to meet and get to know new people. The advice that Miss Romaniello would extend to students is “Participate in extracurricular activities! It's a great way to meet people, hang out with friends, and you'll create memories that you'll have to look back on forever. I strongly suggest joining drama as an extracurricular activity, but I'm biased since that's my favorite activity anyways!”

Mr. Nunes is a student teaching intern in the Social Studies department who is looking forward to working with CHS students. He loves to travel and to date, has been to 8 countries and 9 states, and would like to expand that list and continue traveling to more new places in the future! Mr. Nunes is most excited about getting to meet all of the students and faculty here at Cheshire High and as someone who loves meeting new people, looks forward to getting to know everyone as the year goes on. His advice for students is “Make sure that you take care of yourself! It can be easy to get stressed and overwhelmed with homework and tests and everything else. So make sure that you're eating right, staying active, and giving yourself time to relax and decompress!”

Mr. St. John is joining the CHS science department teaching Earth Science, Biology, and Catastrophic Geological Events to share his scientific love with students. His fun fact is that he is a “total Science nerd” (as he states) so much so that he spent his spring break last year out West observing, studying, and touring the canyons in Arizona and Utah. He is a very outdoorsy person who spends his summers at a Scout Camp where he instructs middle and high school-aged youth on how to blacksmith. As a former middle school teacher in another district, Mr. St. John is excited to get back into a high school and be a part of the community that high schools build. His advice is “Even though you may not enjoy a subject, go in every day with a positive attitude. You never know, you might enjoy the lesson for that day.”

Ms. Embacher is a part of the Pupil and Personnel Services department as the Transition Coordinator supporting students with IEPs. A fun fact about her is that she has been volunteering for the Durham Fair for the past ten years setting up bands on stage and helping them take down their equipment. She is very excited to meet and work with both the students and families of our district, and her advice is to “Be kind to yourself and others.”

There are also many other teachers who have joined our school community that are mentioned below:

Mr. Daigle will be teaching Marketing, Personal Finance, and Principles of Law in the Business department and will be fostering a productive environment for students to learn. Ms. Huleatt is joining the Pupil and Personnel Services department as the new Social Worker to help students with social skills and crisis support. Ms. Lepensky is a special education teacher who will be teaching many resource classes and social skills to the students in the life skills program. Ms. Sommers will be returning to CHS as an official member of the Pupil and Personnel Service department to help students make personal life connections. Ms. Volpe is a special education teacher and is working to become a Transition Specialist. Ms. Carbone is joining the World Language department as the new Spanish teacher who is excited to share her experience with CHS students. Ms. Little will be working in the main office as a Bookkeeper and Main Office Administrative Assistant bringing years of experience. Ms. Giacondino is joining as the special education student teacher with excitement to help the student body. Ms. Cowden is a Social Studies student teacher and intern and is excited to be here at CHS. Mr. Pulisciano is excited to be joining the CHS team as a Business student teacher. Mr. Bernard is the PE student teacher this year who will be helping out with PE and health instructioning. Ms. Speranzo is a part of the School Counseling department as an intern passionate about helping students.