Chappaqua School District Names New Director Of Literacy

CHAPPAQUA-MOUNT KISCO, NY - From Chappaqua Central School District: On April 11, the Chappaqua Central School District Board of Education appointed Mrs. Jamie Edelman as the next Director of Literacy, K-12.

Jamie Edelman first came to Chappaqua five years ago to serve as Principal of Douglas Grafflin Elementary School. Prior to joining Team Grafflin, she spent 13 years as Principal of Putnam Valley Elementary School, was an Assistant Principal of Carrie E. Tompkins Elementary School in Croton-on-Hudson, and before that spent nine years in New York City schools as an elementary school teacher, literacy staff developer, and assistant principal. For the majority of her time in the City, Mrs. Edelman was fortunate to work in District 2 during a time when that District was instituting some of the most rigorous, progressive, and influential educational reform New York City has known.

As Director of Literacy, Mrs. Edelman’s responsibilities will include working District-wide with administrators and teachers to strengthen and align literacy instruction across levels and disciplines; provide professional development in literacy instruction to special educators, reading specialists, and classroom teachers; facilitate the work of inquiry-based fellowships for teachers and the K-12 Literacy Committee; and collaborate with classroom teachers at elementary schools and English department members at middle and high school to enhance the coordination of curriculum and pedagogy across levels.

Being a seasoned administrator, she also will serve as a mentor to new elementary school principals as well as being a key advisor to the District’s secondary principals as a leader who can pull from her building level experiences to help shape instruction. Her professional development philosophy is one that models best practices alongside her faculty, and she is quick to empower the professionals around her to share strengths and collectively tackle areas in need of improvement through collaboration.

“Jamie has a deep understanding of our District’s reading and writing programs,” said Dr. Christine Ackerman, Superintendent of Schools. “She will be instrumental in working with K-12 faculty as we look to improve the vertical and horizontal alignment of our reading and writing programs District-wide.”

Mrs. Edelman will begin her new role as Director of Literacy on July 1, 2018.

Photo courtesy of Chappaqua Central School District