14 • The North Shore Sun • July 28, 2006

Education

New assistant principal comesto Rocky Point from Bay Shore

Carasiti schoolnames a No. 2

By Erin Edmonds

ROCKY POINT—When Frank J. Carasiti Elementary School prin-cipal Paul Read retired at the end of the 2005-06 school year, assistant principal Scott O’Brien took over as the new principal and the search for a new number two began.

After reviewing and interview-ing candidates, the school district has named Bay Shore Elementary School teacher Courtney Herbert as the new assistant principal for the 2006-07 school year.

“I look forward to welcoming Dr. Herbert to the Rocky Point educa-tional community. She will be intro-duced formally to the community at the August board meeting,” said Rocky Point superintendent Carla D’Ambrosio

A resident of Port Jefferson Sta-tion and a graduate of Comsewogue High School, Dr. Herbert is familiar with the area and Rocky Point’s ed-ucational reputation of community support and student success. Dr. Herbert is a graduate of SUNY at Geneseo and St. John’s Univer-sity, where she majored in education.

Dr. Herbert was recommended to Dr. D’Ambrosio after a three-level interview process that included teachers, parents, a board member and ad-ministrators.

“I have always known that I wanted to be a teacher. I had excellent teachers in school and they were models for me,” said Dr. Herbert. “I learned very early on how influen-tial teachers can be in the lives of children. I decided to become an administrator because I came to realize that I could help even more children outside of the classroom.”

To her future colleagues, Dr. Herbert has described her immedi-ate observations of the FJC School as a school of warmth, collegiality and professionalism. “Dr. Herbert brings an energy, intelligence and open-minded philosophy to sup-port and extend this culture,” Mr. O’Brien said.

“When I was at FJC as part of the interview process, it was very easy to see the positive culture in place at FJC. Everyone I saw was smiling and supportive. I am very happy to

be joining such a warm family.”Recent studies indicate that stu-

dents do not receive as much in-struction in reading non-fiction as they should, so one of Dr. Herbert’s goals this upcoming school year is to work with the staff at FJC en-hancing reading and writing of fact-based materials, especially science and social studies.

“I am energized by our shared vision and approach to providing the best primary edu-cation and experience for the students of the Frank J. Carasiti El-ementary School,” said Mr. O’Brien of his new colleague.

Dr. Herbert will be-gin her duties as assis-tant principal in Au-gust. Then, she said, she will begin taking steps towards making her educational philoso-phy of student growth

through parental support a major component of the 2006-07 school year.

“It is very important that schools and parents work together to help the students grow,” concluded Dr. Herbert. “FJC already works very hard toward this end and I would like to see parent and community involvement continue to grow.”

Dr. Courtney Herbert

‘I learned very early on how influential teachers can be in the lives of children. I decided to become an administrator because I came to realize that I could help even more children outside of the classroom.’

Dr. Courtney Herbert

Volunteers soughtSuffolk County Helen Keller

Services for the Blind needs vol-unteers to spend one or two hours a week visiting blind, elderly, homebound residents. Visits could include socialization, reading mail and some transportation. Call 424-0022.