Principal Jess is a graduate of the BPS and has nearly two decades of experience teaching and leading in BPS. She is a life-long learner and holds degrees from Smith College, UMASS Boston, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is passionate about the Montessori method because she believes that the student-centered, inquiry-based, holistic approach of Montessori classrooms allows for deep student engagement, rigorous critical thinking and social/emotional development.

Cassandra Shelton has been working as a school administrator in various capacities since 2011, and has been a spirited team member at the Alighieri since 2019. Cassandra holds a Bachelor of Science in Music Management from Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, where she studied voice, sang in the GSU Women's Choir, and was an on-air DJ for WRAS 88.5 FM, formerly the largest student-run radio station in the country. She is passionate about music, theatre, the environment, traveling, spreading joy, and loves spending time with her family – which includes three young children of her own, and a very energetic standard poodle named Rudolph. Cassandra lives in East Boston and would love for you to say hello if you see her around the neighborhood.