Wantagh School District Welcomes 13 New Faculty Members

WANTAGH, NY — For students around the country, the last week of August is one final chance to enjoy summer days before school picks up again. For 13 educators in the Wantagh School District, it has been a chance to get acclimated to the district they’ll call home for the first time this school year.

Wantagh began its annual new teacher orientation Wednesday, bringing eight probationary teachers, five leave replacements and a handful of teachers who joined Wantagh during last school year. In total, the orientation group is a 17-person unit.

The trainees began their training in a meeting with Superintendent John McNamara, who welcomed them to the district and said they constituted “the best of the best” — a mark the district made sure they met during the hiring practice.

In addition to some facetime with the superintendent, these new educators will be assigned mentors, have access to monthly new teacher workshops and receive instructional coaching in their first year to make sure they hit the ground running when students enter the building, district officials said.

In addition to those mentorship resources, officials said the new teacher orientation gave incoming faculty a glimpse at the curriculum, instructional technology and support services available to faculty and students, and also gave them a tour of the district by bus.

Among the orientation group were three Wantagh alums: 2018 Wantagh graduate Madison Sachs, 2019 graduate Marie Gonias and Gonias' fellow member of the class of 2019, Elizabeth Mitchell.