A 'Proud American Hero' Joins Midland School; New Asst. Principals Appointed

The following was provided by the Rye City School District:

The Rye City School District has appointed Joanna Napolitano as Assistant Principal of Midland School, and Torrance Walley as Assistant Principal of Osborn School. These are new positions that have been created in place of the staff developer roles that currently exist. Both Ms. Napolitano and Mr. Walley are well practiced in implementing the New York State Common Core Learning Standards into the curriculum.

Ms. Napolitano comes to Rye from the New Rochelle City School District, where she currently teaches fourth grade at William B. Ward Elementary School. She has taught at the elementary level in other school districts since 2000, and earned her both her Bachelor of Arts Degree and Master of Arts Degree from George Washington University. She holds a Master of Science in Teaching from Fordham University.

Featured as “A Proud American Hero” in education by Fox News Network, Ms. Napolitano has developed a number of instructional initiatives. She organized a balanced literacy program integrating writing, reading, spelling and grammar; designed learning centers that benefit all types of learners; created an “Authors Day” activity for at‐risk students to help build their confidence; and implemented Book Groups to get students excited about reading. She has also focused on integrating art into the classroom, utilizing SMARTBoard and Promethean technologies in an assortment of ways; and working with students with low levels of disabilities to include them in the mainstream classroom as much as possible.

Mr. Walley joins the District from the Washingtonville Central School District, where he has taught third‐ and fourth‐grade at Little Britain

Elementary School and sixth‐and seventh‐grade Reading Academic Intervention Services at Washingtonville Middle School. He has also served as a special education/reading teacher assistant in Poughkeepsie City Schools. Additionally, Mr. Walley has served as an instructor and a course developerfor the New York State Teacher Centers and he has taught literacy classes at the college level.

With a Bachelor of Science Degree from SUNY Cortland in Childhood Education, a Master of Arts from Columbia University, Teachers College in Literacy, where he studied with Lucy Calkins, a national leader in literacy education, and a Certificate of Advanced Study in School Leadership from SUNY New Paltz, Mr. Walley has drawn on his strong academic background to be a leader in many capacities. Most recently he has served on Washingtonville’s Annual Professional Performance Review Plan Committee to help improve teacher effectiveness. He has coordinated components of a school‐wide bullying prevention program, created and implemented professional development in technology, implemented Lego Robotics into the curriculum through a grant he was awarded, designed an elementary math program, and much more.

“After meeting many candidates and conducting a rigorous interview process, we are pleased to welcome Ms. Napolitano and Mr. Walley to Rye,” stated Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Alvarez. “The Board and Central Administration were impressed by the backgrounds of these two educators, particularly their experiences with instructive coaching and their knowledge of curriculum. We believe that they will be valuable assets to Midland and Osborn, and look forward to their official start in July.”