SEPTA Presents
Distinguished Service Awards
The Huntington School District’s Special Education PTA is indefatigable when advocating for the student services and programs it cherishes. SEPTA thoroughly enjoys recognizing administrators, teachers and teacher aides who have made noteworthy contributions to the lives of the young people they work with.
Huntington SEPTA established the Distinguished Service Award to honor those who have gone the extra mile and played a key role in helping students with special needs reach their full potential.
The organization presented J. Taylor Finley Middle School psychologist Mary DiBenedetto, Jefferson Primary School special education teacher Joanne Taormina and Finley special education case aide Ilene Messina with its coveted 2014 awards.
SEPTA actively solicits nominations for the awards and after they are received, a multi-member committee review essays and other materials that document how the individuals facilitate inclusion, interact with students, make a difference in the youngsters’ lives and share their special qualities with parents and other staff members.
SEPTA presented the awards during the Huntington PTA Council’s annual luncheon last month. The affair was attended by PTA leaders from across the district, building principals and district executives.
Dr. Mary DiBenedetto
Finley Principal John Amato told the luncheon crowd that Dr. DiBenedetto is a valued staff member who makes a difference with students every school day. She founded Finley’s Friendship Club 13 years ago when she saw a need “for students with disabilities to have more opportunities to socialize with peers who are typically developed,” said Caterina Cain, a Finley guidance counselor who nominated Dr. DiBendetto for the award.
“The program has grown each year since its inception and it has included over 600 students,” Mrs. Cain said. “Putting together a program of this magnitude is a huge commitment. She has secured grants to support it. She trains and recruits approximately 50 peer mentors a year and takes special care to see that each mentee is matched with a student that will result in the best possible outcome. Friendships that never would have had the opportunity to be explored are forged.”
Mr. Amato said the veteran educator’s “tenacity in working out solutions result in the continued success, growth and happiness of so many children and families.”
Joanne Taormina
Nominated by the parent of one of her students, Mrs. Taormina received effusive praise for how she worked with the youngster. “The student had transitioned from another primary school into her integrated co-teaching class and it was an extremely difficult transition for many reasons,” said Melinda Weissman, who along with Corrinne Heffernan served as SEPTA’s co-president during the 2014/15 school year.
“Mrs. Taormina had not only been by the side of the student, but the entire family,” Mrs. Weissman said. The teacher would send home detailed reports including “useful suggestions for academic issues” as well as for home based problems.
“Mrs. Taormina possesses vast skills, training and experience, however her patient nature is something beyond vast,” the parent wrote in the official nomination papers.
Ilene Messina
There isn’t anything that Mrs. Messina wouldn’t do for the student she works with. “Her devotion to his physical and emotional needs goes way beyond what each of us is ever expected to provide to our students with special needs,” wrote Finley teaching assistant Susanne Millner in nominating her colleague for the SEPTA award.
“Mrs. Messina’s advocacy for her students’ academic, social and physical ‘comfort’ in a middle school setting is something to be recognized and applauded,” Ms. Millner wrote.
From coordinating the annual March Madness basketball game to raise monies to cover excess medical costs incurred by her students’ family to setting the stage for him to address the student body every Friday morning with a Joke of the Week, Mrs. Messina has shown remarkable devotion to the student she works with at Finley.