New and Returning Teachers at SHS

Every fall, students and faculty come back to school looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting the new additions. This year, Scituate High School welcomes back two familiar faces as well as three new teachers joining the English and History departments.  

A friendly new face joining Scituate High School this year is history teacher Richard Kermond. Kermond has taught for the past 4 years, two years at Westwood HIgh then two years at Belmont.  When asked how Scituate compared to Belmont and Westwood High Kermond stated “the kids and faculty are just far more welcoming here, I’m a little biased because I live in Scituate. I think it’s just a really happy town.”  This year Kermond is teaching 9th grade World History and 10th grade US 1 History.  When asked which grade he enjoys teaching the most, Kermond responded “I really like teaching 9th graders because they’re very energetic and sort of right in that ‘just came out of middle school’ phase.”  Teaching was never a question for Kermond, but rather his calling.  For 22 years he served in the United States Coast Guard. Towards the end of his service he realized that what he loved most about the Coast Guard was teaching.  “I’d always thought about teaching,” Kermond said enthusiastically, “and when I was in the Coast Guard and we’d have to train the new guys and teach them all sorts of stuff like how to be successful and all the leadership skills.”  Luckily, the transition from Coast Guard to teaching was an easy one for Kermond to make, and Scituate is excited to have him as a teacher.

This year the English department is welcoming not one but two new teachers to Scituate High School.  Meredith Kelly is starting her first year teaching 10th grade English and Public Speaking.  Kelly taught previously for two years at Weymouth High School. “It’s very different, the biggest difference is the size. You guys are very lucky this is a small school so that you get a better community feel,” stated Kelly.  “It cracks me up that everyone says thank you on the way out the door, that is very unique to here I have never been in a school where that has happened.”  Kelly has always felt that teaching was the path chosen for her to take in life.  Ever since she was younger, Kelly says, “I was always that person who would wake up at 5 am in the summer and be like ‘okay what are we doing today’.”  She has always been active and engaged in all of her studies so teaching came naturally to her.  

Caitlin Reilly is starting her first year of teaching at Scituate. Last year she taught at Dedham Middle School. Reilly is currently teaching freshmen and sophomore English classes in addition to The Epic Hero’s Journey. Reilly says, “the students at Scituate are awesome. Everyone is incredibly friendly and welcoming. So far it’s been a great experience.”  Ms. Reilly was inspired to become a teacher because she was the oldest in her family and kind of a leader for them and she also says, “just from the teachers that I’ve had and the impact they have had on me being able to do that with kids is an inspiration.”  

Science teacher Geoff Gross is elated to return to Scituate High School.  Gross said “I heard Mr. Sylvester was retiring and I was very thrilled at the opportunity to return.”  Having the new middle school be built and finished in his two year absence from the high school the question on everyone’s minds was whether or not the high school teachers are jealous of the new school.  As someone who’s taught at both schools, Mr. Gross answered by stating “I would rather be teaching what I love to teach than teaching in a new building…it’s really nice returning back especially seeing all you seniors again that I had as freshman that are still great kids.”  Mr. Gross is most comfortable teaching freshman since it’s the course he has been teaching for six years, but he loves teaching the senior AP classes.

Shana Lentini is also very excited to be back.  She is teaching Health and Wellness for the first time ever this year. In the past she has taught English classes but is switching gears to join the Health and Wellness team. She says, “I feel as if we organically touch upon a lot of the topics and skills utilized in health and wellness classes.” Moving to the High School this year didn’t allow Lentini to experience the new middle school.  She is “envious” of the conditioned air at Gates.  Lentini taught sophomores last time she was at the high school but now has the opportunity to teach all grades at the high school. She says, “I’m enjoying the heterogeneous groupings of freshmen and sophomores and juniors and seniors.”  Since Lentini left, she believes a lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same.

With all the new faces coming to Scituate High,  it should be another terrific year.