Staff Biographies
Head of School
Susan Hoffman, A.B. Smith College, Ed. M. Harvard, Ed. D. Johns Hopkins University, has more than four decades experience as an educator, a classroom teacher, a mathematics resource teacher, and as a tutor. She teaches math and participates in many school and farm activities.
Head of Farm
Michael J. Biniek, B.S. in biology, George Mason University, has both a theoretical and a practical interest in farming. He studies and practices ecological growing of food and animal husbandry. He created a heating system for the schoolhouse and the farmhouse using locally available wood. Mike is involved with the students as a teacher, as a mentor, and through going on trips with the school.
Teachers
Matt Salerno has a B.A. in Music from the University of California, San Diego. Before coming to Belle Meade, he has been
teaching math in rural New Mexico, between the Ramah Navajo reservation and the Zuni Pueblo. At the University of
California, he co-owned a collectively run organic food store and activist network. Matt learned to speak Spanish in
Guanajuato, México, where he spent each summer as a teenager. He is also interested in the outdoors, self-determined
learning, social justice and recycled fuels.
Teresa Boardwine was called to teach at the age of six. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Home Economics and Science and many post-graduate hours in education. The most fun she ever had was teaching in Germany for seven years. Europe was a great place to take field trips so Teresa took her class to Paris every year, put on fashion shows and dinners, and sponsored the student union. She taught earth science in Munich and was the eighth grade class sponsor. Her years in between have been spent teaching the medicinal use of herbs and she is a registered herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild. She has always been a teacher and is so pleased that she is back in middle school combining both her love for the students and the holistic approach to life that includes being close to the Earth, nature and our food source.
Tanya Amrhein Paull has a B.S. in biology from Virginia Tech and an M.S. in biology from George Mason University. Tanya has taught a variety of subjects to students of all ages in formal and informal settings. She has taught classes at George Mason University; as the naturalist at Bull Run Mountains Conservancy; and to residents and staff as a Fairfax County employee. She brings her wide range of teaching experience to Belle Meade School’s earth science class as well as its horseback-riding program. Tanya is also managing the school’s vegetable garden and is a self-described “garden-aholic.”
Dontez Harris is a musician and a master teacher. He has taught music in public and private school in Washington, DC and Rappahannock for 19 years. He has an uncanny ability to relate to a wide range of students, stimulate their interest, and get them to perform well. He teaches music with gusto and joy. He received his formal education at Howard University and University of District of Columbia. He performs with several groups in a variety of styles: jazz, bluegrass, world beat, gospel, reggae, classical.
Nora Harrington Fletcher began teaching drawing and painting in 1995 when she designed and taught classes for gifted and talented N.Y.C. public high-school students through the Saturday Program. Since moving her studio to Rappahannock County she has taught private lessons to all ages and skill levels and has been a visiting teacher at Lord Fairfax Community College, Wakefield Country Day School, and taught drawing through the CASE program at the Rappahannock Elementary School. Nora began her formal arts training when she herself was in high school at The Suitland Center for the Arts, an arts magnet school. She received her B.F.A. from the Cooper Union School of Art and has been represented by various professional galleries since 2001. She is currently represented by Caulfield Gallery and at www.Nora-Harrington.com.