Celeste Curley has served as the district’s director of pupil services since 2000. A speech therapist and special education teacher who taught deaf-blind autistic children for many years, she began working in the field of special education in 1972 and has a wide range of experience as both a teacher and an administrator in diverse student populations.
A native of Newark, Dr. Curley worked as a speech therapist and teacher of the blind in upstate New York and Ontario before taking on her first administrative position in the 1980s with the Associated Services for the Blind in Philadelphia. She served as its director of rehabilitation programs before accepting the position of coordinator of staff development for the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
A longtime resident of South Jersey, Dr. Curley returned to public education in 1989 when she signed on with Haddonfield Public Schools as its coordinator of administrative services. She is a former supervisor of migrant services for the Gloucester County Special Services School District and has served as the director of special services/projects for Hammonton Public Schools.
In the mid-1990s she worked for the state education department on the Special Education Medicaid Initiative, providing technical assistance to participating districts in seven southern counties and preparing program analyses and reports to other state agencies. Prior to joining the administrative team in Hopewell Valley, she worked as the county supervisor of child study teams in the 42 school districts of Gloucester and Atlantic counties.
In Hopewell Valley Dr. Curley leads a department of more than 180 professionals serving more than 600 students with special needs. In her years at Hopewell Valley she has initiated a number of new programs designed to meet a diversity of needs, including a class for children with autism, an integrated preschool program (PEECH) and an Extended Year program for students needing year-round services. On her watch the department also introduced Language Learning classes, a private school model designed to support students with language acquisition and processing issues. She also launched the Academic Essentials and Applied Academics programs for middle and high school students, respectively, which provide intensive instruction in core curriculum subjects to students with significant disabilities. Dr. Curley, who did her doctoral dissertation on inclusive education, also started the district’s Collaborative Classrooms from preschool through high school, grouping special and general education students together to cultivate learning environments that promote respect and understanding. A certified school business administrator, Dr. Curley oversees an annual budget exceeding $12 million.
Dr. Curley earned a bachelor’s degree in speech pathology and audiology from the State University of New York at Geneseo and a master’s degree in management and administration from Rider University. She holds a doctorate in educational leadership from Wilmington University in Delaware.
In her personal life, Dr. Curley has a long record of community service. A resident of Haddonfield, she founded the Interfaith Homeless Hospitality Network of Camden County, which provides housing, meals and employment networking to homeless men. She is a past president of Haddonfield’s community-wide afterschool program and past president of the Haddonfield Fortnightly Women’s Club, in addition to be an active volunteer with her daughters’ scouting clubs and sports teams. In 2006 Dr. Curley was given the Rosa Parks Award by the Haddonfield Human Relations Commission for her longtime community service and being “an inspiration to equality and diversification.”
Dr. Curley and her husband, Lance, have two grown daughters, both of whom have special learning needs.