Fresh faces in Valley Stream's schools

A decade ago, the Valley Stream Central High School District would have had about 40 new teachers at the start of a school year and most would have been fresh out of college, according to Superintendent Dr. Bill Heidenreich. This year, there are 18 new teachers, and just about all of them come with prior teaching experience.

It’s a changing trend in education as teaching jobs are harder to come by. Many districts have been cutting positions over the past few years, meaning there is a pool of experienced teachers looking for jobs. That, in turn, leaves few openings for recent college graduates.

In District 13, there are eight new teachers this year, and all spent at least two and as many as 11 years in the classroom. “We’re very excited because we have a group who are coming in with an understanding of teaching and learning,” said Superintendent Dr. Adrienne Robb-Fund.

The eight new teachers include five hired for a probationary period, meaning they would be up for tenure in three years. Those five are replacing teachers who retired last year and the other three are leave replacements. Robb-Fund said the eight were selected from a pool of about 5,000 applicants.

Two of the probationary teachers have worked in the district before filling in for other teachers on leave. Megan Ross, a kindergarten teacher at Dever, said she is happy to have her first permanent position in District 13, after teaching kindergarten at Howell Road last year. She also taught for six years in West Islip.

Mary Danna will be teaching sixth grade at Willow Road School after four previous leave replacement positions in the district. “I’m thrilled and feel extremely fortunate that with such a difficult time to find a teaching job, I was able to find one,” she said.

Danna, who worked for Verizon for 16 years teaching at the corporate level before making the transition to public school education, said she is also glad to be teaching in the same district where her daughter attends school. As a sixth-grade teacher, she said she looks forward to preparing students for their transition to junior high school next year.