From his seat on the Smithtown Central School District Board of Education, newly-elected trustee John Savoretti stood tall.
During the recent often-heated election, in which Savoretti and his running-mates swept the three seats at stake, the challengers stated over and over that the Board of Education should be focused on education, on creating a scholastic environment where students are taught how to think, as opposed to what to think.
It’s about education, not indoctrination, they stressed.
Or as we wrote on this editorial in endorsing the challengers – now victors – “It’s all about the students, as it should be.”
Yet at the latest school board meeting, Savoretti’s first, he was challenged from the podium in the public portion.
A parent questioned the assertion that equity teams are ‘dangerous,’ The question directed at Savoretti: “I’d like some explanation about that.”
“I’d like to know how you plan to support this framework so that all students can thrive.”
As the article in this issue notes, Savoretti waited until after the next agenda item to deliver his response.
He recounted a personal academic history of some who thrived – and wants all students to thrive.
A teacher, he explained, saw him as unfit to be college-bound, indeed potentially unable to graduate high school. English was not his first language. “It wasn’t my second language. It was my third,” he said.
Placed in remedial reading, remedial writing, speech classes, he was determined to prove them all wrong. “All the extra classes possible are what a good school district did for me.”
He credits another teacher, remembering to this day that her actions spurred him to not only graduate from high school, but to earn his four year degree from Adelphi University.
That teacher is the type of teacher I want, he said. It’s the teacher and opportunity all students deserve.
“I don’t want anybody left behind. I want everybody to succeed no matter what their limitations are. That’s why we endorsed him and hope his passion continues.
Smithtown – and its students – will be the better for it.
That is the message. This is The Messenger.
