Mrs. M. Mannella, Speech Teacher    

One of the most significant changes is the size of the student body. In elementary school there was one class for each grade level. Through my elementary school years there were Black students in my class. I never really gave it a lot of thought. There was a diverse population when I entered junior high and high school. My graduating class in 1969 was about one hundred and thirty students. I believe growing up in small school and community helped us bond with all of the students. Even though it was a time of racial turmoil, my relationship with Black students did not change.

Mrs. D. Fremont, Speech Teacher    

I graduated from Longwood High School in 1973. My graduating class was small, with about one hundred and fifty students. Although the district’s geographic physical size has not changed the population has soared. We knew almost everyone in our class; and many since kindergarten. Our population then, as it is now, was multicultural. We had a large black population in Gordon Heights, which was a community started in the 1920’s. There was also a large German population in Yaphank, an Estonian population in Middle Island, and people from many different European countries throughout the community. Brookhaven National Laboratory added to this mix. People from Israel, China, and Japan, to name a few places, worked at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, and their children attended our schools. This years graduating class will have approximately seven hundred and fifty students, compared to my class of one hundred and fifty.

Mr. D. O’Connell, 6th Grade Teacher      

One of the things I most remember about growing up in this area was how rural it really was. There were farms and lots and lots of woods. In those days the Longwood Central School District had a very small student population, when compared with today.

The class of 1969, with which I graduated, had a total of about ninety students of all ethnic backgrounds. As I remember, we got along very well together. In fact, I am proud to say that many of my friends I first met in school have remained my friends for the past forty years. I have always felt that I was fortunate to have lived here, gone to school here, and worked here. One of the main reasons I have felt this way was because of the diversity of all of the people I grew up with. They all helped shape my life, and I feel richer for it.

Mr. E. Henderson, 6th Grade Teacher      

Longwood has always been a culturally diverse school district. Going to school in the Longwood district from first grade through twelfth grade was a positive experience. My participation in the Longwood sports programs was the most enjoyable.

Today’s Longwood students are not that different from Longwood students of the past. Today’s students have not changed that much. However, the world they live in has changed greatly.

      Mrs. L. Tinsley, 6th Grade Teacher    

I started my school career in Middle Island School district now known as Longwood Central School District. I was four years old when in kindergarten with Mrs. Hunt as my teacher. I don’t remember all of teachers, but the ones I do remember hold a special place in my heart. Miss Jones was my third grade teacher. She was my first black teacher and she presented the possibility that I, too, could become a teacher. Mr. Woog was my 4th and 5th grade teacher. I was so in love with that man! As I got into High School, the one teacher that stands out in my mind is Mrs. Lazzaro, my Spanish teacher. She was a short, stout woman who took no stuff.

I went through high school during the late sixties and early seventies. Those were exciting times. I remember feeling that I was isolated; one of the few Black kids in the honors classes. I never really fit in anywhere. Until, I joined “the movement.” We felt the need for more Black teachers, and Black history classes. We raised all kinds of dust in the district.

Somebody must have heard us, because after I graduated and went on to college, the district started looking for more Black teachers. Mr. Rocklein, who was the superintendent at the time, came down to Hampton Institute to recruit Black teachers from the historically black college. That is how I became an employee of Longwood Central School District.

Fast-forward twenty-five years, and the dust constantly needs to be stirred up. Anytime you have over one hundred teachers retire and only two Black teachers represented in the replacement crew; anytime you ask your students if they have ever heard of Thurgood Marshall and they tell you, “no”: It’s time to stir up the dust.

I’ve come to realize that my job is to be a Miss Jones for a child looking for a goal, be a Mrs. Lazzaro who takes no stuff, and to let people know of a Thurgood Marshall, an AMERICAN hero.

 

 

 

 

Mrs. M. Klapproth, Special Education Teacher   

The German-American Settlement League (Siegfried Park) in Yaphank started out as a summer place for children and a campground for adults in the 1930's. It was sponsored by the German-American Bund. At first, it had been established to create a country-like enclave to the German speaking people from New York City.

To live in Siegfried Park you had to be of German descent and be sponsored by a member of the German-American Settlement League. I moved there after I married in 1987, and moved out in 1992.

There exists a stigma associated with Seigfried Park concerning some pro-Nazi  and antisemitist issues, because of the negative social and political environment before and during World War II.