Bill Cirullo never thought of being anything other than a teacher. He started coaching Little League right after he stopped playing Little League. The individual who had the biggest influence on his career path was coach Larry Ivan, his social studies teacher at the Quarry Street Middle School. "From the moment I met him, I wanted to be like him," Mr. Cirullo recalled. "Larry Ivan treated me with such respect. I remember him telling me: 'Bill, you can do anything you want'."
Mr. Cirullo's Princeton roots go back 350 years. His maternal great, great, grandfather, Samuel Lewis Southard, was a graduate of The College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) and became Governor of New Jersey and then First Secretary of the Navy.
Born and raised on Humbert Street, Mr. Cirullo was an elementary and middle school teacher in the Princeton Regional Schools for 16 years, first teaching sixth grade at Community Park School, which he attended as a boy, and then, teaching sixth through eighth grades at John Witherspoon Middle School, where he was also chair of the social studies department.
A year working for the district in a support and enrichment position to enhance curriculum and instruction in the elementary schools whetted his appetite for curriculum development. He then taught fourth grade at Riverside for three years before being appointed principal, twenty years ago. Since then, he has put his stamp on the school.
Principal Philosophy
Mr. Cirullo's personal style is inquiring and experimental. He is eager to learn new techniques and new understandings, especially the insights into children's learning offered by recent studies on brain research. During his first few years as principal, he put his belief that a school should be "alive with research" into practice. Riverside teachers became involved in reading research such as mis-cue analysis. Four of the school's teachers have been recognized by the National Council of Teachers of English for their work, which ultimately, he believes, enhances classroom teaching.
Having spent much of his life thinking about, designing, and developing curricula, Mr. Cirullo favors a variety of teaching "delivery systems." In addition to large group instruction, Riverside teachers use cooperative group instruction, paired group instruction, and individual conferencing. "There is no way you can learn how a child thinks if you stay within a large group instructional format alone," he said. "There are schools that are still trying to pull that off and having difficulties. No wonder, their structures are wrong!"
In addition to teaching in the classroom, Mr. Cirullo has always coached sports and frequently draws upon sports metaphors in describing his methods. He believes that it's possible to reach 100 percent of kids and that it is the educator's responsibility to understand how children learn and to differentiate instruction that is meaningful to each individual child. "It can be done. It's not a pipe dream," he said. "What you are trying to do in this profession is to get engage children. You can have all the expertise you want but if a kid isn't on the playing field, isn't prepared and available for learning, either because of emotional, physical, or some sort of social stress, you just don't have a chance."
Residencies too, are an integral part of the Cirullo philosophy. Riverside School has invited dancers, architects, artists and, most recently, the New Jersey Opera to work with its students. The School's autism programs are also a source of pride. In the last six years, three have been established, serving up to 18 children.
Besides focusing on educational theory and practice, Mr. Cirullo is also a hands-on kind of a guy. When a third grade project called for a colonial herb garden, he rented and operated a rototiller. That was just one of a number of collaborative projects in line with his philosophy of drawing the school and the community together, such as the butterfly garden, turtle habitat and organic herb garden developed by parents Joni Dabbs and Dorothy Mullen.
Lacrosse and Dovetails
With his own kids now grown, Mr. Cirullo has found time to coach lacrosse. He is a co-founder of the Bobby Campbell Lacrosse Foundation, named for a former Riverside student who was killed in a car accident. The group runs free clinics and a girls tournament at Princeton High School. Their most recent outreach, however, is in Trenton. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, at the Village Charter School, close to 75 third through sixth grade girls and boys consistently show up for practice. He finds this a source of great satisfaction.
In his rare private moments, he will most likely be focused on the challenge of a dovetail joint. He's been restoring antique furniture for thirties years and is now building fine furniture, the best example of which, he said, is a recent side-table. "I learned a lot working on it, serpentine front, concave sides, bird's-eye maple, from live stock, milled. It's the most humbling experience. I've been thinking about kids and education since I was 12 years old but thinking about curved furniture, and dovetail joints is all consuming. It helped make me a better teacher."