School News

Beloved Memorial JHS principal leaving district for Baldwin schools position

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Memorial Junior High School Principal Anthony Mignella has accepted an administrative position in the Baldwin School District and will end his six-year stint as head of the school on August 19.

“I get very choked up when I talk about it,” he said. “It’s been like a second home to me here.”

Mignella started working in the Valley Stream Central High School District as a chemistry teacher at South High School 16 years ago. After six years there, he was appointed assistant principal at Central High School. Four years after that he was chosen to take the lead at Memorial.

He said his guiding belief about education has been that when students’ emotional and social needs are met, their academic careers thrive.

“The overall vision was to really foster growth for students in their hearts and their minds,” Mignella said. He sought to make school a “caring and nurturing environment” for all students.

“We’ve seen our Regents results soar,” he said. “Our teachers are doing a wonderful job with that … All the research shows that when students are cared for emotionally, their academic scores tend to go up 10-15 points.”

Mignella said that deciding to leave Memorial was bittersweet, but that becoming an assistant superintendent was always a career goal of his. He will begin his new role as assistant superintendent for instruction in the Baldwin School District on August 22.

“He said this was the hardest thing he ever had to do — to make this decision,” said parent Christine O’Toole, who added that Mignella had become a staple of the school community over the past decade.

“Honestly, we feel like we’re mourning,” she said. “We feel like it’s a death in our family.”

O’Toole said Mignella knew everyone’s name and forged long-lasting relationships with parents, teachers and students.

“Everyone just wanted to be by him,” she said. “He just has this awesome personality.”

Superintendent Bill Heidenreich said that Mignella was very conflicted about the prospect of leaving the school district. “We both concluded that it was too good an opportunity to pass up,” he said.

“Anthony was always concerned about the social and emotional well-being of Memorial’s students as well as their academic success, and he found a great balance between those two things,” Heidenreich said. “I think his legacy will be what he brought to the culture and climate of Memorial.”

The Board of Education has already placed a job posting in the New York Times, and an interim principal will be announced over the summer who will likely continue through the first few months of the school year, Heidenreich said.

Christina Picarella, former Wheeler Avenue School PTA president and former inter-school president for District 13, said that Mignella had such a strong community mentality that he helped her seventh-grade daughter when Picarella and her husband divorced.

“He and his staff were unbelievable for me,” Picarella said. “He would call me and tell me if she looked upset.”

She said that Mignella had an awareness about the challenges that teenagers experience, and made an extra effort to help students maintain strong family relationships — specifically through events and programs involving parents and students throughout the year.

“We were going through such a hard family time,” she said. “I don’t know how my daughter could’ve made it through [without him].”

She said that Mignella also helped implement a team system at Memorial, which subdivides the student body into smaller groups, and students earn points through various student activities. Picarella, a Memorial alumnus, said Mignella’s approach was better than her principal’s in the ’70s.

“We had a principal that we were afraid of, and you couldn’t talk to,” she said.

“Everybody accepts everybody in that school for who they are, and he wouldn’t have it any other way,” she said. “He made the school a family.”

Parent Tina Rendon said that she would miss Mignella’s Saturday coffee talks, at which he would discuss student progress and new programs at the school.

“He made each child and parent feel welcome,” Rendon said. “He always had time to talk to you, and answered your emails on the weekends. He is a very dedicated man. He made those kids proud of their school, and made them all want to be better people.”

Parent Michelle D’Elia said that the coffee talks became an open and honest conversation with him and parents, that faculty often opted to attend.

Mignella said that he hoped to continue his involvement with Memorial in the future.

“This is my home,” he said. “I’m going to keep watching Memorial from afar, and I hope to be invited back as a guest.”

As Mignella spoke about what he wanted the community to know about his departure, his voice wavered.

“I would want everyone to know that I’ll miss them and I want to thank them for the memories they’ve given me,” he said.