The North Babylon Union Free School District has appointed Gaetano Vaccaro as the district’s new Director of ENL & World Languages.
Mr. Vaccaro, a Holbrook resident, earned his Bachelor of Arts in communication arts and media from CUNY Queens College and went on to earn a Master of Arts in teaching English to speakers of other languages from CUNY Hunter College. He also earned his Advanced Diploma in school district leader from The College of New Rochelle and a Master of Science in Educational Leadership and Administration from The College of Saint Rose.
He comes to the district after serving as an instructional support specialist in the Long Island Regional Bilingual Education Resource Network at Eastern Suffolk BOCES in Oakdale. Prior to that, he held many ESL teaching positions, including an ESL learning specialist for Queens Collegiate-A College Board School, and an ESL teacher for Glen Cove High School and Robert M. Finley Middle School in Glen Cove, South Ocean Middle School in Patchogue, Manhattan Village Academy, and Oliver Wendell Holmes I.S. 204. in New York City.
Mr. Vaccaro currently serves on NYSED's Seal of Biliteracy Task Force and served on
the New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test review committee.
As a life-long learner, he expands his knowledge base by being a member of New York State
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, New York State Association for
Bilingual Education and New York State Association of World Language Administrators.
Mr. Vaccaro’s goals in North Babylon is to “continue to support the important and challenging work of the ENL program, while further increasing graduation rates among English language learners. In addition, I plan to explore other programs that have been successful in increasing attendance at the secondary level,” he said. “As far as the world languages department, one goal is to increase participation in the New York State Education Department's Seal of Biliteracy and further develop a dual language program at the middle school.”