As student and teacher, six decades in Valley Stream schools

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Patricia Serio, a District 30 special education teacher, announced last week that she will retire in June — after nearly 60 years in Valley Stream schools, first as a student and then as an educator.

It all began when Serio attended the Clear Stream Avenue School in 1958. “I grew up in Valley Stream,” she said, “and I haven’t moved away.”

After finishing kindergarten at Clear Stream Avenue, she spent one year in Florida. Then Serio and her family returned to Valley Stream, where she enrolled in District 13. She graduated from Central High School, and attended Adelphi University, where she earned undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Several District 13 teachers inspired her to go into education, she said. In particular, she offered high praise for Harris Mandelstein, her sixth-grade teacher at the Wheeler Avenue School, who “really cared about his students,” Serio said.

“I think we got a fabulous education then, and I think the students get a fabulous education now,” she said.

Originally, she explained, she planned to become a math teacher. When she realized that many special-needs children were in regular classes, however, she decided to major in elementary education and minor in math. She earned her master’s degree in special education.

In 1975, Serio started working as a substitute teacher in District 30, and in 1977 she was hired as a remedial math teacher. Throughout her time in District 30, she served as both a remedial math teacher and a resource room teacher in each of the district’s three schools. She was also an interim administrator and gymnastics coach.

“Pat, the children who have been under your charge have been very, very fortunate — as have the teachers and administrators who have gotten to work with you,” said Erin Malone, the Forest Road School principal, at the March 20 Board of Education meeting.

Serio is not, however, the only District 30 educator who will retire at the end of the school year. At its meeting on March 20, the school board also accepted retirement announcements from Bruce Lesser, a fourth- and sixth-grade teacher, and Grace Guttman, who teaches kindergarten through second-grade.

Lesser has taught in the school district for 43 years, and he has developed close relationships with his students. “In all cases, the kids come back with respect for this gentlemen,” Nicholas Stirling, the District 30 superintendent, said of Lesser.

Carolyn Torres, a school board trustee, credited Lesser with her child’s success. “Because of you — and I know this to be true — my son was able to go through a transition and do well, very well,” Torres told Lesser, adding that his teaching was “the best thing that happened to my son at Forest Road.”

Other trustees attributed their children’s success to Grace Guttman, who is also retiring.

Ingrid Wyllie-Dacon shared a story about how her husband fell ill when her daughter was in Guttman’s first-grade class. She said that Guttman called her every week to check in. “It meant so much to me that, as a teacher, she would do this,” Wyllie-Dacon said.

Wyllie-Dacon’s son was also in Guttman’s class, where Guttman convinced him to start reading. “I truly believe that my children are where they are because of the foundation that they got at Forest Road, and you were such a big part of that,” Wyllie-Dacon told Guttman before directing her next comment to the audience. “It is my pleasure to tell her that this little boy who she molded and who she’s responsible for is at his first year at MIT, and thank you for that.” Wyllie-Dacon’s son, Ashton, was South High School’s salutatorian last year.

Malone agreed that Guttman had a meaningful impact on her students. “She really is the little engine that could,” she said.

June Innella, a former District 30 teacher who retired last year, presented the retirees with daffodils. They will be honored at a retiree dinner on May 5.