Teacher of The Month is a segment of The Spectator where we feature a teacher at Berkley High School and take a deep dive into their lives in order for the BHS community to get to know them better. This March, we are featuring Mrs. Sclafani, who teaches a variety of special education classes such as Resource Room, Program Math and English, Learning Resource Center, as well as LINK class (peer support). Not to mention her role in organizing Unified Sports last year and the Peer To Peer club. She teaches a lot of classes and has established herself as a great leader.

This year is Mrs. Sclafani’s 18th year teaching. After earning her undergraduate degree from University of Michigan-Dearborn and her master’s degree in special education from Wayne State University, she worked in Wyandotte Public Schools as a special education teacher in a center-based program for students with severe disabilities for about ten years, and six years as an inclusion specialist, before joining the Berkley High community in 2022. She says she chose to become a special education teacher because she “always wanted to be a part of improving the lives of others.” She adds, “I had my own struggles in school, and had some great mentors along the way that helped me and made me realize the difference I could make in someone’s life.” She enjoys running Peer To Peer and the LINK classes because she has “…a really big passion for inclusion and these classes creates a sense of understanding for students both with and without disabilities and makes a more positive school.” Her favorite memory of teaching here was seeing the Unified Sports program take off and become popular, as well as creating the Unified Art and Unified Gym classes for students to spend more time with their non disabled peers.

Outside of school, Mrs. Sclafani travels a lot with her husband and three sons Grayson, Sawyer, and Maxwell as they like to go camping. Her family embarked on a big cross-country road trip the summer before she joined BHS. “We visited so many amazing places, including Yellowstone National Park, Zion National Park, Badlands, South Dakota, the Grand Canyon, and Mount Rushmore. It was an unforgettable experience that we will cherish forever.” She also attends her son’s many sports practices, as well as reading, occasionally painting, and training her new puppy, a setter-pointer mix. “All of that keeps me pretty busy,” said Sclafani. Mrs. Sclafani is a vital part of the BHS community, and is a wonderful staff member, so if you see her throughout the day, don’t be afraid to say hello!