Galati stepping away after 40 years at N.S.
Richard Galati, who dedicated 40 years to the North Shore School District as a teacher, advisor, department head, and board member, announced his resignation as a trustee effective immediately.
Galati, a member of the board of education since 2017, resigned at the Nov. 21 Board of Education meeting due to personal reasons. Andrea Macari, board president, read his letter of resignation aloud during the meeting and shared the impact he had on the board.
“I feel that my time as a trustee needs to come to an end at this point, it has been a true honor and privilege to serve the students and families of this community,” Macari read to the board.
“We would like to thank Richard for his service, some of you may not know this, but he was actually my professor, and he is the reason why I moved back to the North Shore, so thank you Rich for your service.”
Prior to becoming a board member, Galati was a science professor at the North Shore High School. He taught different science classes and lead many clubs and extracurricular activities for students to participate in.
“I taught physics and chemistry at all different levels. I taught AP, regents, honors, and the local general classes all during my 31 years teaching here,” Galati said. “I was the coordinator of extracurricular activities for 28 years. I was one of the founders of the science research program, and I also started the Science Honors Society here.”
Galati, a long-time resident of Glen Head, saw all four of his children go through the North Shore School District, and has been heavily invested in the schools’ well-being throughout his years as an educator. Galati said that once he retired, he knew he wanted to continue to give back to the district he loved so much.
“I have lived here for so many years, all four of my kids graduated from North Shore High School. I was really heavily invested into the school, and I was really interested in what was going on. So, when I retired, there was kind of a void,” Galati said. “I thought moving to serve on the board of education could be another way to serve the community and the district, so I decided to run.”
Galati said the decision to step down was a tough, but important decision for him to make. Due to personal reasons, he believed that it would be best for himself and the board for him to step down from his role.
“There were things that I was missing in my own family. I talked to my wife and I told her that I am not getting any younger and I don’t want to keep missing those kinds of events anymore,” Galati said. “The role started to take more and more time, and it was getting harder as I was getting older, and I started thinking that maybe it is for everyone’s best interest for me to step aside.”
Galati emphasized that he moved his family to Glen Head to give his children the best possible education. Galati said that he still loves this district and that he put his heart and soul into it to make it the best it can be.
“I feel very strongly about being here, we moved our family here to make sure that our kids went to school here,” Galati said. “I really feel strongly that we need to continue to work to improve, even though we have a great district, we can always do more, and that was always where my focus was.”
The district plans to honor Galati at one of their upcoming board meetings for all the work he has done for the district.
