Two long term substitutes have joined the history department to cover classes for Helen Mendoza and Andrea Drobnick while they are on maternity leave.
Brett Quimby will handle two classes for Drobnick and two for Mendoza through spring break, and Conner O’Rourke will handle four classes for Mendoza and one for Drobnick until the end of the year.

Quimby has a range of experience in education. At Crossroads School, he was in charge of the upper school substitutes and produced middle and upper school plays. Last year, he produced “Once on this Island,” a play for which upper school students at Crossroads traveled to the Bay Area to perform at hospitals, shelters, and other places where people have difficulty experiencing art.

Quimby also taught full time in Crossroad School’s summer program, and he’s also taught English to ninth graders in the Marshall Islands.
It is also Quimby’s first time teaching in a single-sex educational environment. He said he enjoys how earnest the students are in classes and is glad to be a part of the school. “Here I see the opportunity to add to a student’s learning and to learn a lot myself,” he said.

O’Rourke has taught at the University of Connecticut and worked as the program director for Exploration Summer Program.

O’Rourke has self titled himself the “Academy Awards amateur historian.” Ever since he was five, he has always loved watching the Academy Awards, Billy Crystal being his favorite host. O’Rourke even hosts Oscar parties for his friends and bakes Oscar cookies with gold frosting.

After working with middle school students in the Exploration program, O’Rourke said he was interested in working with the same age group at Marlborough.
O’Rourke said teaching is his calling.

“Teaching is the only job in which I feel 100% sure of what I do,” O’Rourke said.