English teacher Adam Litvinoff has 8 years teaching experience. He taught 7th grade at Eliot for 2 years. Before Eliot, he worked in New York outside of Albany and in Rhode Island. He didn’t know if he wanted to be a teacher at first. This year, he teaches freshmen and juniors. He said that working at Morgan has been the best high school experience because of the other teachers who made it a good experience. He also said that usually moving to a new school is very rough, but with the help of other teachers, it has been easier for him. English teachers Brooke Mazzarella and Leslie Chausse have been the most helpful for him. When asked to share a memory from this year, he said on the first few days, seeing all the students he taught as seventh graders again was the best, and it was “just luck in my case”.
Band Teacher Vidal Orduz worked at 7 different schools. He’s known since freshman year of high school that he wanted to be a band teacher. He taught at Eliot for 2 years and still currently teaches the 5th graders. Mr. Orduz now teaches all the grade levels at Morgan. His favorite memory from this year was the beginning of the year when he got to meet all his students. He believes the Clinton District is a very nice place to be and inclusive.
Dr. Tina Mannarino has been working in schools for 37 years. She has worked in Brooklyn, Rochester, New London
and New Haven. She originally wanted to become a lawyer until she found a program that provided both. At first, she was working for a lawyer whose wife is a school psychologist. She knew she wanted to advocate for students and decided to become one because of his wife. She enjoyed working at Morgan so far. Mrs. Mannarino thinks Morgan is a beautiful school inside out, and it’s an amazing place. It’s new, modern and has lots of nooks and crannies with colorful furniture for the students. She believes a lot of effort is put in to help students be comfortable, and it seems like a lot of students enjoy coming to school. She stated “Good things are happening here”
Beverly Bowen has been working in Clinton Schools since 1990. She had also worked in North Branford for 3 years and
Madison for 2 and a half years. She then took a 2 year break to take care of her twins. She has known her whole life that she wanted to be a speech pathologist. She had a sister who had a speech impediment so she worked with her when she was 9 or 10 to help her learn to speak, which inspired her to become a speech pathologist. Mrs. Bowen states that it’s been a challenge learning the new schedule. In the beginning, she didn’t understand it at all, and she would write out the wrong schedule for her students. They would end up being in class and not with her. She likes this school. She finds everyone to be upbeat and positive, and she finds the students to be respectful, mostly. Not only that, but she thinks it’s safe, and the students are challenged, and the teachers are fair.
History Teacher Michael Meizies teaches freshmen and sophomores this year. He worked at Morgan before working at Eliot for 14 years.
Science Teacher Kelly Gilbert also recently started at Morgan this year. She teaches Integrated Science and Biology level 1. She graduated from the old Morgan.
