This year, Bethpage honored fifteen retirees for their decades of service to the district. Some spent their entire careers within the walls of our schools, watching students they once taught return years later as parents dropping off their own kids. Others arrived mid-career, bringing outside experience that shaped the way they taught. Behind every name on that list is a career's worth of first days, last bells and everything in between. We sat down with four of this year's retirees to hear about the moments that stayed with them.
Wendy Way: Building Philosophers
After 31 years at Bethpage High School, Wendy Way, who taught AP World History and college philosophy and served as student council advisor and Ethics Team coach, is proudest of a program she built from nothing. Twenty-five years ago, she started the high school's philosophy program. Since then, it's sent students to present papers at colleges, to the National High School Ethics Bowl at UNC Chapel Hill, to appear in a documentary and even to the International Philosophy Olympiad. The program was written up in The New York Times along the way.
But when Ms. Way talks about her most memorable day, it isn't about a competition or an accolade. It's September 11, 2001. This was before smartphones, so we were only getting snippets of information, and none of it was good, she recalled. I remember a bunch of classes getting together in a room with cable television, and we all just watched the images on the screen... students were comforting each other. I remember it like it happened yesterday.
Her advice to new teachers is about staying limber in a job that never goes according to plan: You make 100 decisions an hour, and you must be willing to shift focus when things don't go the way you plan... Don't get frustrated, just learn to pivot.
In retirement, Ms. Way is planning a full calendar — working seasonally at Disney World, playing pickleball, traveling, organizing overseas trips for adults and finally getting around to taking baking and cooking classes.
Terri Shutkind: From Card Catalogs to Chromebooks
Terri Shutkind began teaching social studies at Bethpage High School in 1992, when Googling meant a walk to the library and a hunt through the card catalog. She's watched the classroom transform completely since then. The rise of the internet and cell phones has created incredible opportunities, but it has also made competing with TikTok a challenge, she said.
Of everything she's navigated, nothing compared to the return from the COVID shutdown. Teaching behind a mask, with students behind plastic barriers or boxed into a screen, felt isolating, she said, and she found herself saying you're on mute more times than she ever expected. It reminded me that teaching is not just about content; it's about connection, reassurance and showing up for students when they need stability.
Her advice for new teachers centers on humor and humility: Don't take yourself too seriously and have fun with your students... laughter goes a long way in a classroom. In retirement, she's looking forward to boating, skiing, improving her mahjong game and finally learning Spanish.
Larry Portuese: A Festival That Comes Full Circle
Larry Portuese has taught Forensic Science at Bethpage High School since 1997, after a stint at Northport High School and seven years running an environmental education center at Connetquot River State Park Preserve. Ask him why he became a teacher, and he'll tell you honestly: The pay was 3x what I was making at Connetquot, and I just had my first child!
His proudest achievement is the Maritime Festival, which he created in 2001. Every third grader at the district's three elementary schools attends the festival each year — taught, in part, by Mr. Portuese's own 12th grade students, many of whom experienced the festival themselves in third grade. It's a wonderful full-circle event, he said. He's also taken more than 1,000 students fishing over the years.
In retirement, his top priority is simple — no more commuting!
John Franchi: Three Decades in Athletics
John Franchi has spent nearly three decades shaping Bethpage's athletics and physical education programs, starting as a health and PE teacher at John F. Kennedy Middle School in 1995 before becoming District Athletic Director in 2001. I always knew I wanted to be a Physical Education teacher and coach from an early age, he said. It was a combination of my love of children and athletics that drew me to the Athletics world.
His guiding principle for new teachers is one he's repeated often: Every decision you make should be based on what's best for your students.
What he'll miss most are the relationships built over decades with colleagues and students. Mr. Franchi isn't stepping away from athletics entirely — he's joining Turf Tek, a company that installs turf fields and playgrounds.
Four careers, four decades, one district.
Together, these four educators represent more than 100 years of combined service to Bethpage students — through 9/11, a pandemic, and every ordinary Tuesday in between. The district thanks all 15 retirees this year for their dedication and wishes them well in their next chapters.
