Kathleen Bailer Adams, Director
Kathleen Bailer Adams, Director, comes to Mountain Road School from a background in elementary education and early childhood art education. Kathleen has a Bachelor’s Degree in Art from Bucknell University and a Master’s Degree in Elementary and Museum Education from Bank Street College of Education. She holds certifications in both elementary and art education. Her teaching experiences include public and private schools overseas and in the USA including Mountain Road School from 1998-2000. Kathleen is currently in the process of obtaining a license as an Elementary School Principal through the Massachusetts Elementary School Principal Association.
Kathleen is inspired by the educators in Reggio Emilia, Italy which hold the view of children as powerful, capable and competent. Kathleen brings a wealth of knowledge in early childhood and elementary education, a background in professional development, and a leadership in progressive education to Mountain Road School.
Kathleen has a heart for helping others and is active in helping children and teachers in Haiti. She enjoys swimming, reading, walking, skiing and exploring the world with her son, Elan and husband, David.
Eileen Vieira, Administrative Assistant
Eileen Vieira, Administrative Assistant, is going on her third year at Mountain Road. Eileen has an extensive background in the secretarial field, coming to us from Capital Security in East Greenbush. Eileen has a passion for painting and has shown her work in Chatham, Albany and at Mountain Road School. Eileen is a mother of two girls and enjoys taking walks with her dog.
Gennifer Westover, Bookeeper
Gennifer Westover, Bookkeeper, has been at Mountain Road School since 2001 when her daughter attended the school. In her younger life, she toured Europe one summer in a VW camper bus with her parents and brother and lived in Sweden and later in Jamaica before finding Old Chatham and moving back to the states. She has her Bachelor’s Degree from Cornell University and lived for six years in the Boston area after college. Working at Harvard University, she was the Assistant to the Senior Tutor (Academic Dean) at Quincy House. After missing the small town life of Chatham she moved home in 1990, met a great guy from her high school class and settled down. She enjoys spending time with her family, long walks with her iPod loaded with rock and roll, science fiction, and the occasional bad pun.
TEACHERS
Shivani Lash Preschool Teacher
Shivani Lash, Preschool, comes to Mountain Road School with a Montessori background and a wealth of teaching experience. She is a certified midwife and brings her knowledge of families and children to her work in the classroom. Shivani is a sensitive, caring teacher with a deep appreciation of children, their individual needs and their desire to explore, learn, and express themselves.
Bharati Shapero, Kindergarten -1st Grade Teacher
Bharati Shapero, K-1st Grade, returns to Mountain Road School for her third year. Bharati comes from a background in teaching, camp directing, and yoga. Before earning her Masters degree in Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, she worked with kids in a multi-age camp setting. The camp focused on nurturing the entire being: body and heart. As director, she brought with her a certification in Hatha Yoga and a passion for the education of the whole child within a community setting.
Since 1997, Bharati has worked with children in underprivileged urban areas along the east coast bringing with her literacy, a love for learning, and a deep caring for children. After completing her Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology at the University of Virginia, she headed north, reading with and teaching kids in Washington D.C., New York City, and Western Massachusetts.
Bharati enjoys yoga, hiking, reading, baking, music, and learning new things everyday from her students, peers, and environment.
Aimée Johnson 2nd/3rd/4th grade teacher
Aimée Johnson, 2nd/3rd/4th Grades, began working at Mountain Road School in the fall of 1988. Since that time she has taught every class from kindergarten through 6th grade and spent three years as the school’s Director, as well as being active on the Board and Development Committee at different times.
Aimée graduated cum laude from Mount Holyoke College and holds a teaching certificate in elementary education. She has worked professionally in the field of education since 1977. She particularly enjoys working within the collaborative structure of Mountain Road School, and places a strong emphasis on building community—of teachers, students and parents. Mountain Road School with its philosophy of “heartfelt education” and its focus on nature deeply resonates with her beliefs in a child-centered and spiritually based education.
Aimée, her husband Don, and son Kyle live in the Abode of the Message community. Kyle was a student at Mountain Road School from preschool through 6th grade. Her husband is a special education teacher in the Berlin Central School District. Together they enjoy traveling, gardening, camping, swimming, hiking, cross country skiing, reading, and their pets.
Jon Stevens, 4th-5th Grade Teacher
Jon Stevens 5th/6th Grades, is in his third year of teaching at Mountain Road School. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of New Hampshire and continued on there for his Master’s Degree in Elementary Education. Prior to coming to Mountain Road, Jon worked with children as a long-term substitute and in special education for several years.
Having strolled hundreds of miles throughout the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Rocky Mountains, Jon integrates his love of learning from nature into the curriculum. Outside of school Jon travels the region and country leading people in song and dance, recording music, and mentoring youth and young adults in awareness, rhythm, balance, and viewing one’s life as a work of art. Jon guides students in expanding their awareness of the world and their inner workings while nurturing qualities needed to overcome obstacles and conflict inside and out.
Chantal van Wierts, Art and French Teacher
Chantal van Wierts, Art and French, has been teaching at Mountain Road School for over twenty years. She is a native French speaker from Canada, a trained Waldorf French teacher and applied arts teacher from Sunbridge College, and currently she is finishing up a Bachelor’s Degree at Lesley College. When she was in college, she studied art and felt drawn to many different art forms. She discovered that through puppetry she could use multimedia art disciplines, and that to become a professional puppeteer (studying with a master puppeteer from Prague) she had to study sculpture, drawing, painting, woodworking, and mime. In addition to teaching at Mountain Road School, Chantal has her own professional puppet group, “The Magic Lantern Puppet Theater.”
Mark Kelso , Music and Choral Arts Teacher
Mark Kelso, Music. This is formally Mark’s third year as our music instructor, although he has been actively involved with our music and theater programs for many years, including substitute teaching and accompanying our school plays.
Primary teaching points:
Music can be really fun
The more fun it is, the more we do it
The more we do it, the better we get at it
The better we get at it, the more fun it is, etc.
Sara Katzoff, Theater Arts Director
Sara Katzoff, Theater, is in her third year as Mountain Road School’s theater director. After spending her junior year at The Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, Sara graduated cum laude from Simon’s Rock College. Among her many theatrical accomplishments, she has toured nationally with Landis & Company, regionally with A Mixed Company, and along the Pacific coast with The Dell’Arte School. Ms. Katzoff is a member of the Actor’s Equity Association and has trained as a company member with Mission Improvible!, Shakespeare Sedona, The National Theater of The Deaf, and Shakespeare & Company. She has been a guest artist at the Norman Rockwell Museum, P.S 60, The Flying Cloud Institute and was a mask-making instructor at Simon’s Rock College.
Sara Katzoff is the co-founder and co-artistic director of the Berkshire Fringe Festival, a not-for-profit arts organization that presents new works of theatre and dance by emerging artists to the Berkshire community.
Devin Franklin, Flying Deer Nature Center Director
Devin Franklin, Co-Director, Flying Deer Nature Center, discovered his thirst for the Wilderness Teachings in 1994 and has been walking the wilderness path ever since. Devin studied survival, tracking, and awareness skills with Dan Fisher of Wilderness School in Maine and Tom Brown Jr. at the Tracker School in New Jersey. He trained for six years in Naturalist Mentoring and Community-Building skills through Jon Young and the Wilderness Awareness School, as well as with Mark Morey and the Vermont Wilderness School. Devin received a degree in Environmental Education from Prescott College in Arizona in 2001. He joined Flying Deer Nature Center in 1998, where he was mentored by Leonard Brown in the ways of Coyote Teaching and the Medicine Wheel. Devin deeply loves working with children and nature through creating a Naturalist Community that has been his home since 1998
Michelle Apland Flying Deer Nature Center
Michelle Apland, Co-Director, Flying Deer Nature Center, launched her world of wilderness skills at the age of nineteen when she spent five and a half months hiking the length of the Appalachian Trail. Soon afterward, she began taking classes with the Tracker School in New Jersey, focusing on Philosophy and Healing. Michelle continues to complement these studies with training in naturalist mentoring and community building with The Wilderness Awareness School and The Vermont Wilderness School. In 2001, Michelle earned degrees from Prescott College in Environmental Education and Eco-psychology. She enhanced her skills by studying herbalism and mentoring with Lorene Wapotich of Her Feet on the Earth and becoming a Kripalu Yoga teacher. Michelle discovered Flying Deer Nature Center in 1999 and fell in love with the beauty of what she saw. She returned in 2000 to take a leading role in guiding its growth as a Naturalist Community. Michelle is passionate about working with children and families and specializes in leading “Daughters of the Earth” Programs, a concentration for women and girls within The Flying Deer Nature Center.
Lily Waites
Lily Waites, Aftercare, is a Mountain Road School Alumna. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a Bachelor’s degree in Animal Sciences. This is her third year as the aftercare teacher, and in the past she has worked as a substitute and as the preschool assistant. Lily enjoys reading, collecting unusual words, spinning wool, decorating cakes, and has a daughter named Violet.
