Camille DeCanio Signs out
for Last Time
When Camillie DeCanio signs out Friday afternoon, it will be for the last time as Huntington High School’s librarian. She’s retiring after 24 years of service to the district.
Ms. DeCanio came to the high school in September 1986 after working two years at the Ursuline School in New Rochelle and six years at Eastchester High School. A graduate of CUNY-John Jay College with a bachelor’s degree in behavioral sciences, she earned a master’s in library science at Pratt Institute and engaged in additional graduate study at Columbia University’s Teachers College and C.W. Post College in education and computers.
Over the past two decades, Ms. DeCanio has been very involved in the Huntington high school’s life, from being a class advisor to serving as co-advisor of the Grandfriends and A World of Difference (AWOD) clubs, as well as co-advisor of the yearbook in the 1990’s and more recently the student internship program.
She’s been a member of the high school’s shared decision-making committee, participated in the social and emotional learning initiative and facilitated Challenge Day activities. The highlight of every year has “always been working on the student centered activities and programs,” Ms. DeCanio said, including mix-it-up day, international night, the senior-senior prom and AWOD training programs for students and staff.
Ms. DeCanio said she found planning projects and research assignments for students to be “a very rewarding and gratifying career and I have been so fortunate to spend my work days with young adults. I have learned something new from them each and every day and working with them has made me a better person.”
Special memories are centered on the work she’s collaborated on with her colleagues, especially members of the library staff and teachers Camille Tedeschi, Suzi Biagi, Gina Colica, James Graber and Aimee Antorino and “all of the other teachers who schedule their classes in the library for research and instruction. I have been so blessed to have worked with such a talented and caring group of educators,” Ms. DeCanio said.
There have been many memorable days, but the ones that stand out are “the day that marks the end of a successful English term paper season each year in May, the day that the students came to me to tell me that they had dedicated the 2006 yearbook to me and the morning that they invited me to read the boy’s names at graduation,” she said. “These are just a few of the highlights in an outstanding career at the high school.”
Like most people nearing retirement, Ms. DeCanio has been spending time thinking about her many years on the job and what the future holds. “I will miss the working day-to-day with students and my colleagues,” she said. “I will not miss the 5:15 a.m. alarm blaring, not one bit! I plan to travel outside of the teacher time schedule both in the states and abroad. I will also spend time visiting with family and friends at my leisure.”
An article about Ms. DeCanio and her career that appeared in a June edition of The Dispatch, the high school newspaper, “meant a great deal to me especially the student perspectives,” she said.
Ms. DeCanio said she will be returning to the high school on a part-time basis next year to continue her work as co-facilitator of the student internship program. “I am looking forward to working with the students,” she said.
Now, as her final minutes on the job tick down after more than three decades as a librarian, the longtime Huntington faculty member waxed nostalgic. “I have smiled and laughed each and every day and walked out of the building with a grin on my face,” Ms. DeCanio said. “How many people are able to say that about 32 years of work!”
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