New ELA Department Chair Joins SHS Team

As someone who’s always loved books, John Scopelleti seems well-qualified to be the new English department chair for Scituate High School. Hired at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year, Scopelleti comes to Scituate from South Shore Vocational Technical High School (SSVT), where he was an English teacher and department chair. He worked at SSVT for thirteen years.

Scopelleti said he has always been passionate about studying English. He said, “I’ve always loved writing, just storytelling in general, love it.” Scopelleti earned his undergraduate degree at Brown University, and he completed his graduate work at Bridgewater State University.  He is excited to be working for Scituate Public Schools, and he noted all three of his children are in the Scituate Public School system.

Ryan Beattie, a previous English Department Chair for Scituate High School, served on the search committee that hired Scopelliti. Describing the main responsibilities of the job as “helping to create a program that has curriculum and instruction that helps kids be engaged, to help kids learn, helps supports teachers teach,”  Beattie believes that Scopelleti will succeed in this new role. Explaining how he has “known him for a couple years now,” Beattie said Scopelleti is well qualified.

Prior to being hired as the department chair, Scopelleti and Beattie worked together on the Unity Council, which is a group dedicated to promoting cultural awareness in Scituate. Beattie said, “We do work outside with a different kind of committee and he’s awesome–he’s very open-minded, he’s very creative, a good problem solver, really good listener, which I think is great.” Beattie described Scopelleti as a “phenomenal teacher.” “I think in order to do the type of work of a department head you have to be a really good teacher,” Beattie added, “I think we’re in good hands.”

Scopelleti sees himself working at SHS long term, smiling as he explained how “everybody has been welcoming–everybody has just been warm genuine from the students to the staff.” Scopelleti commented, “I almost feel guilty about how much I enjoy this job.”  

Scopelleti is excited to dive into the next chapter of his life with his new role at Scituate. When asked how he felt about his experience at the high school so far, Scopelleti said, “I love it–absolutely love it.”