Our Leadership

Carol Mongiello has been an educator in New York City since 1993. She started her career in Brooklyn as a NYC public school early childhood education teacher where she implemented her own curriculum focusing on New York City’s history. In addition to her classroom experience, she pursued a second master’s degree in Early Childhood Special Education and became a bilingual early intervention evaluator and service provider to children from birth to age three and their families. Carol has also worked as an adjunct lecturer at Kingsborough Community College and Touro College since 2006.

In April 2010, Carol joined the Office of Early Childhood as an Instructional Coordinator supporting programs in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island. Some of her responsibilities included working closely with principals, directors and teachers to improve program quality in pre-k through third grade; co-planned and facilitated city-wide professional development for pre-k through third grades and worked with network leaders and their teams to help them better support early childhood programs within their schools. She was accepted into the Leaders in Education Apprenticeship Program (LEAP) in the summer of 2012 and shortly after was selected through the New Schools process to open a new NYC Public School.  

Opening its doors in September 2013, Carol became the founding principal of P.S. 59, The Harbor View School and successfully led the school for 7 years. The school was known for its progressive approach to education with two central ideas; one is that students learn from doing and the other is that students learn best when interacting and collaborating with peers through a project and inquiry-based approach with a focus on NYC’s history, culture and environmental sustainability especially New York Harbor. 

In 2020, Carol became the Executive Director, Instructional Program Support for the Division of Early Childhood Education. Her work included supporting a Birth - 5 continuum of programs including district schools, community-based organizations, Head Starts, 4410 programs, private and charter schools. In addition to supervising and supporting a large citywide team of leaders and coaches, the role required her to work cross-functionally to think about how the work intersects with all other departments, outside agencies and work streams; including working on citywide policies, developing and implementing long term strategic plans and ensuring that we were thinking about supporting our city’s youngest children and their families in the most culturally responsive and equitable way possible.

Most recently, Carol joined The Division of Educator Development in Teaching & Learning supporting the work of the Chancellors’ School Improvement Initiative, Lighthouse Collaborative. In this position, she supported a portfolio of schools that were selected to be in a cross-district instructional improvement initiative where they engage in collaborative inquiry and sharing of promising practices. She supported schools in all grade bands including middle and high schools. Before joining the Lighthouse team, she briefly supported the Accelerated Learning and Teacher Development team on the implementation of project-based learning across schools with accelerated programs and across classrooms within their school communities.  

In addition to her varied teaching experiences, Carol is the proud daughter of Cuban refugees who taught her to value family, community, education and the gift of being kind to others. She believes in culturally responsive pedagogy and working closely with communities to lift and celebrate the beauty within. She is a former Brooklynite and currently a Staten Island resident who is a proud wife and parent of three children who attended NYC public schools and are now young adults pursuing their individual dreams.

Carol is honored to have the opportunity to open another new public school in our wonderful city grounded in values and an approach that centers what she values most - child centered learning. As a new Montessori school leader, she has surrounded herself with experts, leaders and consultants in the field of Montessori who are instrumental in helping the design and development of our school model. She has immersed herself in visiting established Montessori programs both public and private as well as partnering with reputable organizations such as The National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector and the American Montessori Society. Albee Square Montessori Public School will open its doors September 2024.