Haggerty’s Loyalty to Huntington Runs Deep
There is rarely a dull moment around Lori Haggerty. The J. Taylor Finley Middle School special education teacher is a lot of fun and always has something interesting to add to any conversation. She’s also exceptional at what she does, determining exactly what makes each of her students tick and differentiating instruction to meet the needs of everyone.
After graduating Huntington High School in 1979, the future teacher headed to SUNY Buffalo where she earned a bachelor’s degree in special education and a master’s in reading. It was while working on her master’s in 1983 that Ms. Haggerty began her teaching career in an inner-city Buffalo school.
In 1989 she returned to Huntington and what she calls her “roots.” She was hired to teach at Finley, the same school she attended as a junior high school student in the mid-1970s.
“At first it was a strange adjustment, working with colleagues who were former teachers of mine,” Ms. Haggerty recalled. “Charlotte Coronato was my junior high gym teacher, who had suddenly become my mentor and a dear friend to this day!”
She has stayed at Finley for the past 21 years “and have truly loved every minute of it,” Ms. Haggerty said. Her early years at Finley were carefree ones, before becoming a wife and mother. It was a time she will always remember fondly.
“Work became my social life as well,” she said. Teachers affectionately labeled the school ‘Funley’ and it “was bound by teachers who loved to socialize outside of the school building,” Ms. Haggerty said. “We would go to hockey games, we always celebrated the holidays and the end of the school year, played volleyball after hours, and for a while a bunch of us even enjoyed whitewater rafting weekends twice a year! Today Finley is still powered by an amazing group of professionals who enjoy and respect each other.”
One of her proudest moments as a professional came when she was invited to be a presenter of Huntington’s inclusion program at a state conference. Ms. Haggerty and fellow teacher Nancy Wilson, who is currently the district’s current assistant director of special education and student support services, pioneered Huntington inclusion program in 1996 “and we soon became a model program for the state, speaking at the state conference in Albany for three years in a row,” Ms. Haggerty said.
It’s hard not to have fun around the Finley teacher. She’s a humorous person, light-hearted and doesn’t hesitate to laugh at herself, too. Her loyalty to the district can’t be questioned nor can her commitment to the students who rely upon her expertise.
“I’ve also been fortunate to have been able to teach all levels of special education, starting in small classes, moving on to inclusion and now enjoying life in the resource room,” Ms. Haggerty said. “I am also fortunate this year to be the ‘life skills’ home and careers teacher to an exciting group of seventh and eighth graders. That’s a definite perk of being a special education teacher - every year is different, every day brings new and exciting challenges.”
Being around young people seems to run in the family. Ms. Haggerty’s mother, Emily Halligan, who also happens to be a Huntington High School graduate, worked as a nurse in the district for 19 years.
“I truly believe that every child can learn, but it is up to us as educators to figure out how to get through to a child and how that child best receives information,” Ms. Haggerty said. “Whether it is through particular learning styles, multiple intelligences, whatever the current buzzwords are - every child can be reached, and it’s up to us to find the best way to do that.”
Her colleagues hold Ms. Haggerty in high esteem and for good reason. “As an educator, my primary goal is to make my students feel positive about themselves,” she said. “If I can boost their self-esteem and provide a laugh or two along the way, I’ve done my job.”
At the end of the day, this is a teacher who is more than content with her career choice. In that regard, Ms. Haggerty quotes Confucius: “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
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