Administration & Faculty

ANDREW DILLON

Head of School, Director of Admissions and College Counseling, Math & Science Educator
M.S. in Education Leadership Administration, University of Maine at Farmington
M.S. in Traditional Chinese Medicine, American College for Traditional Chinese Medicine
B.A. in Music, Bennington College

Andrew has been integral to the growth and stability of the school since 2009. He began his BHHS career teaching math, later adding science and music. Over the years, he collaborated with previous BHHS Heads of School to develop and refine the school’s approach to project-based learning, and attract the skilled faculty necessary to implement its program. The students’ progress delights him, and he maintains contact with many of the school’s graduates.

Careful and conscientious, curious and always learning, Andrew isn’t shy to try something new or challenge himself to do something better. He’ s never without a lot of reading material, a self-taught woodworker, an enthusiastic cook, and boasts an encyclopedic knowledge of 80’s dance music. While quiet by nature, he makes plenty of sound behind a drum set, and is a regular member of the Soulbenders.

Andrew and his wife are parents to four grown children and have lived in Blue Hill for 28 years.

MARGRET BALDWIN

margret[at]bluehillharborschool.org

Visual Arts educator; German language educator

B.A. in Art Education, University of Maine Orono
B.A. American Thought, The Corcoran School of Art, George Washington University
Montessori Institute

Margret Baldwin received her early schooling in Hamburg, Germany and in London, England. She attended university in the United States, where she raised her family. After teaching Art full time for twenty years at the Blue Hill Consolidated School, Margret retired in order to be able to commit her energies to exploring the visual mysteries and complexities of the world she finds herself in. Margret has illustrated half a dozen operas for large screen projection, on stage for concert productions, and continues her studies of the human figure at the weekly meetings of a figure-drawing group. She illustrated Into the Wilderness by Nina Chandler Murray, an account of the lives of early settlers in Western Maine, and is currently working on a book of short stories with illustrations based on her family's life in Germany during and after the war.

Margret believes that communication, questioning, understanding, empathy, self-awareness and confidence are built through language and through the Arts. She teaches skill development in drawing and exposure to great artistic achievements through film and pertinent hands-on projects.

JESSICA BOOTH

jessica[at]bluehillharborschool.org

Administrative Assistant

B.A. in Urban Studies, Bryn Mawr College

Jessica Booth was born and raised in Annapolis, MD, but her parents and brother moved to Deer Isle when she left for college. After 16 years in Philadelphia doing software project management, hanging out with musicians and music producers, singing and cooking, she moved to the Blue Hill Peninsula to work at her brother's now-defunct restaurant, Ovenworks, and join the erstwhile women's acapella group Ellacappella. Since that time, she has worked a variety of jobs at boatyards, restaurants, and small manufacturers, and also kind of learned to ski. She lives in Brooksville with her husband and teenage son and daughter.

DANIEL BOSE

danielb[at]bluehillharborschool.org

Math Educator

Graduate Certificate in Weather and Climate Risk and Data Analytics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
M.A. Mathematics, Missouri State University
B.A. Comprehensive Mathematics, Missouri State University

Daniel brings a strong background in mathematics instruction. He holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees in mathematics with complementary experience in physics and microeconomics. Daniel has extensive knowledge of relevant computer coding languages and math writing programs. In addition, he is certified in weather and climate risk data analytics; this background will expose students to statistical tools in evaluating real-time issues. Daniel is a recent arrival from the Midwest, and is an outdoorsman when not calculating and coding.

BRITTANY COURTOT

brittany[at]bluehillharborschool.org

Social Studies & History Educator, Admissions/College Placement/Student Advisor

B.A. in Education, University of Maine Farmington

Brittany Courtot is an original. An original BHHS student, now alum. An original thinker, who raises meaningful questions regarding social studies and its connection to the community’s local history.

Brittany was born and raised on the Peninsula, in both Brooklin and Blue Hill, and has been teaching at the Harbor School for six years. Educated in the project-based model, she exemplifies the many qualities of a BHHS curriculum. Fascinated by both history’s big themes along with the smallest details of a historical event, she captures the imaginations of students and provides a vivid social studies experience. In addition to teaching, she serves as a student advisor for both high school planning as well as future pursuits.

In her spare time, Brittany enjoys going for walks outside, drinking Scottish Breakfast Tea while sketching, or adding to her growing horde of elephant paraphernalia. Brittany is known for her playful clothing style, sporting a different bow tie every day of the week.

LEE LEHTO

lee[at]bluehillharborschool.org

English Educator

M.A. in Teaching Secondary English, University of Maine Orono

M.A. in Writing and the Teaching of Writing, University of Maine Orono [candidate]

Lee Lehto joined the Blue Hill Harbor School in 2017. She is an avid reader and sometime poet who believes in the value of writing as a means of making thought visible and communicating with others across time and cultures. Previously, Lee taught English at Deer Isle Stonington High School for ten years and at George Stevens Academy for three years. She has lived in East Blue Hill since 1975.

BILL McWEENY

Science Educator

B.S. Northeastern University
EdM Harvard Graduate School of Education

Bill McWeeny has been studying Marine Science since before it was offered as a separate subject in Universities. He researched the marine borer, Limnoria, in high school and carried on his studies at Northeastern University’s Nahant Marine Laboratory as an undergraduate. The Vietnam War forced Bill into teaching and he found his true passion.

Now, in his sixth decade of teaching science, Bill is more excited than ever to share his knowledge with his students. Bill has taken part in many National Science Foundation projects including the 1972 Tilton Environmental Curriculum Guide and the 1990’s Global Laboratory Project that connected science classrooms around the world via a new technology, the Internet. In the 2010’s he spent a decade working on curriculum development at University of Maine Orono’s RISE Center.

In 1983 Bill volunteered for the New England Aquarium’s Right Whale Research Team. He has been a member of the field team in Lubec during the month of August for the past twenty-five years. Bill has been directing The CALVIN Project at Adams School in Castine for the last twenty years. He considers the joining of his teaching with right whale research through The CALVIN Project the biggest accomplishment of his career as an educator.

PAM MORGENTHALER-NANSON

pam[at]bluehillharborschool.org

Academic Support

B.S. Georgetown University

Pam began her involvement with education teaching and coaching basketball in Jersey City, New Jersey. She and her husband moved up to Maine when their two boys began school and Pam remained involved in education through tutoring, coaching and volunteering.

She finds joy spending time with her husband and boys as well as returning to New Jersey to visit her parents, sisters, nieces, nephews and their rescue animals. She also enjoys hiking, swimming, tennis and skiing.

Pam and her husband Brian were married at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.

MARY KATE SMALL

mksmall[at]bluehillharborschool.org

French Educator

B.A. in Human Rights (B.D.I.C) & French, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

In seventh grade Mary Kate Small started learning French and was soon hooked. Her inspiring Parisian high school teacher remains a beloved friend at 96. One of her hopes in teaching foreign languages to school-age students is that they may eventually be able to communicate meaningfully in something other than their native tongue. Another is to share cultural information that may not be gleaned elsewhere.

Because of her ability to communicate in French and Spanish, Mary Kate has helped people randomly in airports and bus terminals, and locally with refugees turned friends. She has championed social justice throughout her adulthood. A resident of Camden, she has served on Pax Christi USA’s National council and, as a French speaker, helped Congolese refugees transition to life in Maine.

BEN THELWELL

benthelwell[at]bluehillharborschool.org

Outdoor Adventure Counselor

B.A. & B.S., University of Maryland, College Park
M.Ed./CAS, University of Maine Orono

Ben is a National Certified Counselor and a National Certified School Counselor. He is also conditionally licensed as a Clinical Professional Counselor in the State of Maine. Before working as a School Counselor, Ben enjoyed an extensive career in experiential education, which included working as an Outward Bound instructor, directing several outdoor adventure programs, and co-founding The Maine State Sea Kayak Guide Service. He was also a lecturer in psychology and sociology for The American University of Vietnam, where he designed the school’s counseling center.

Ben lists art appreciation and the study of mythology as his primary interests. He still enjoys offshore sea kayaking and maintains his license as a Master Registered Maine Sea Kayak Guide. He has climbed Mt. Katahdin over fifty times, and counting.