Meet the Building Committee

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The AHS Building Committee represents Town and School administration and committees as well as the community at large.  Skills include educational, financial, architectural, construction, legal, environmental and communications.

Want to reach the full committee?  Email us.

Kathleen Bodie – Superintendent of Schools
Dr. Kathleen Bodie has served as the Superintendent of Arlington’s Schools since 2010, after serving as Interim Superintendent beginning in 2008. She also served as Assistant Superintendent and Director of Mathematics K-12 in Arlington. Superintendent Bodie oversaw the Thompson Elementary School rebuild as well as the newly constructed six room Thompson School addition. She is also overseeing the Gibbs School renovation as a sixth grade school scheduled to open in September 2018, as well as the Hardy Elementary School six room addition scheduled to begin construction in spring 2018. Stratton Elementary School has also been renovated during her tenure as Superintendent.  Email

Adam Chapdelaine – Town Manager
Adam Chapdelaine has served as Town Manager of Arlington since February of 2012. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Chapdelaine served as the Deputy Town Manager of Arlington, the City Administrator for the City of Fall River and also held several positions within the office of State Senator Joan Menard. The Office of the Town Manager continuously evaluates functions of government and public services to maintain Arlington as a community that provides a high quality of life for residents and visitors alike.  Email

Jeff Thielman – Chair of AHS Building Committee and School Committee Representative
Jeff Thielman has served on the Arlington School Committee since 2003, and is currently Chair. He heads a non-profit that works with resettled refugees and immigrants, helping them to find a place to live, get a job, and become citizens. He co-founded the national Cristo Rey Network and served as President of Cristo Rey Boston High School. Early in his career, he was a trial attorney in Boston and worked in the financial services industry. He has three children who attend Arlington Public Schools.  Email

Kirsi Allison-Ampe – School Committee Representative
Kirsi Allison-Ampe is trained as a physician and scientist and has strong analytical credentials. She has served on the Arlington School Committee since 2010 and has served on many other committees as School Committee Representative. These committees include Long Range Planning, Arlington Education Foundation and Arlington Tourism and Economic Development. She currently has two children attending Arlington Public Schools.  Email

Francis Callahan – Community Member with Architecture, Engineering and/or Construction Experience
Francis Callahan is President of the Massachusetts Building Trades Council. He is also a member of Massachusetts Construction Law Working Group and the MSBA Advisory Board and Owners Project Manager Review Panel. He has in-depth knowledge of competitive bid laws governing public construction and also extensive knowledge of best and worst practices in the construction industry. He was born and raised in Arlington and currently has three children in Arlington Public Schools.

John Cole – Community Member with Architecture, Engineering and/or Construction Experience
John Cole is an architect and a long time member and chair of the Permanent Town Building Committee. While on Permanent Town Building Committee, he has overseen the construction or substantial renovation of all seven elementary schools, three fire stations and the Community Safety Building. As an architect, he has led mixed-use commercial development project teams in the US and abroad as a principal architect at a multi-disciplinary design firm. His two children are graduates of AHS.  Email

Tobey Jackson – Community Member
Tobey Jackson is an educator, with professional experience overseeing school building projects. As a teacher and a leader, he has participated in major renovations/rebuilds at two public charter schools in Boston. He was a Thompson Elementary School Building Committee Member, and is a community volunteer. He currently has two children attending Arlington Public Schools.

Matthew Janger – Arlington High School Principal
Dr. Matthew Janger became Principal of AHS in 2013. Prior to coming to Arlington, he was Principal of Bar Harbor High School in Maine. He currently has three children attending Arlington Public Schools.  Email

Ryan Katofsky – Community Member
Ryan Katofsky is a mechanical engineer, and an energy & sustainability professional. He is also a founding member of Sustainable Arlington. As a member of the Town’s Energy Working Group, he has helped secure grants and has helped the town plan and implement energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, including the installation of solar arrays on six schools. He currently has two children attending Arlington Public Schools.

Domenic Lanzillotti – Purchasing Officer for the Town of Arlington
Domenic Lanzillotti has worked for the Town of Arlington for 14 years. Prior to working in Arlington, he served as Buyer for the City of Worcester. He is a Massachusetts Certified Public Purchasing Official (MCPPO), which is required by the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

Kate Loosian – Community Member with Architecture, Engineering and/or Construction Experience
Kate Loosian is a design construction project manager. She is also a community and PTO volunteer and former Town Meeting Member. Trained as an architect, she has worked for many years in capital planning and design/construction project management and also performs design document review and critical analysis. She currently has three children attending Arlington Public Schools.

William J. McCarthy – Assistant Principal Arlington High School
Bill McCarthy has worked for the Arlington Public Schools for 14 years in various roles, both as a teacher and administrator. His experience includes working with the Facilities Department to help manage the high school building and to support teachers with building issues; this gives him a detailed perspective on the high school building and its inner workings.  Email

Michael Mason – Chief Financial Officer, Arlington Public Schools
Michael has a wealth of experience in school and municipal finance. He started working for Chelsea Public Schools as a member of the Accounts Payable team and then became the Assistant Business Manager. He left to pursue a job at Partners Healthcare as a Finance Specialist and after two years returned to Chelsea Public Schools as the Business Manager.  His main responsibility as Business Manager was assisting the Executive Director of Administration and Finance with the annual budget by establishing a budget development schedule, providing analysis of salary and expenses as well as coordination of production and distribution of the budget.

Judson Pierce – Community Member
Judson Peirce is an attorney, former School Committee Member, Town Meeting Member, and community volunteer. He brings many years of experience working in private law practice concentrating in worker’s compensation litigation. He has two children currently attending Arlington Public Schools.

Sandy Pooler – Deputy Town Manager for the Town of Arlington
Sandy Pooler previously worked for the Town of Amherst as Finance Director and the City of Newton as Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Budget Officer. He is a member of the Massachusetts Municipal Managers Association and a member and past president of the Massachusetts Government Finance Officers Association.  Email

Brian Rehrig – Capital Planning Committee Member
Brian Rehrig, a member of Arlington’s Capital Planning Committee, is also a Town Meeting Member and volunteer board member of the Arlington Land Trust. He brings extensive knowledge regarding land conservation to the committee. As treasurer for the Arlington Land Trust and former member of the Symmes Advisory Committee, he worked to ensure the approval of a conservation restriction for an undeveloped portion of the former Symmes Hospital site.

Amy Speare – Community Member
Amy Speare has worked as a product marketing manager and volunteered as President of Arlington Education Foundation, a PTO member and as a resourceful community volunteer who has organized Town campaigns and projects. She brings communications, marketing, publicity, project management and leadership skills to the building committee.   She has two children attending Arlington Public Schools.

Karen Tassone – Executive Assistant to the Superintendent of Schools
Karen Tassone serves as the Recording Secretary for the AHS Building Committee. She held the same role for the Thompson School Rebuild Committee. Karen has worked in central administration at Arlington Public Schools since 1995, for School Committee from 1998-2005 and in the office of the Superintendent since 2006.  Email

Updated October 8, 2019

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