Moving onto her next chapter

Kathleen Anderson’s office at the Woodmere Education Center smelled of roses last Friday, as the assistant superintendent for Human Resources & Student Services for the Hewlett-Woodmere School District, received several bouquets of flowers to congratulate her on her retirement.
“We’ve been here 20 years [on Long Island] and we’ve loved it,” Anderson said of she and her husband, Larry. “But Texas is in my heart and we’re going back home.”
Anderson’s retirement, effective July 1 of next year, comes on the heels of the departure of five principals and Assistant Superintendent Laura Seinfeld last school year.
In 1993, Anderson moved to Long Beach from Texas when Larry accepted a professor position at C.W. Post. She began as director of Human Resources at Nassau BOCES, where she served for six years, and it was there that she met Dr. Charles Fowler, then Nassau BOCES superintendent. “When Dr. Fowler accepted the position of superintendent for Hewlett-Woodmere, he asked me to come join him there,” she said. “Hewlett-Woodmere had a wonderful reputation and I wanted to be back in a district again.”
Before moving to Long Island, Anderson spent 16 years in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch School District, first as a special education teacher, then as special education supervisor and finally as a district administrator. “There was no question in my mind that I wanted to be a special education teacher,” she said. “I wanted to work with students who were misunderstood and give them a way to fit in and be successful.”
For Anderson, who oversees special education, community education, nurses and social workers, she feels she has the best job in the Hewlett-Woodmere School District. “I get to hire incredible people and take care of them so they can take care of students,” she said. “It’s a wonderful job.”