September 2004
Contact: Holly Brooker
(845) 255-1450 xt. 1301

Ulster BOCES Garners Four Awards for Excellence in Education

Four Ulster BOCES educators have garnered Excellence in Education awards from the Mid-Hudson School Study Council (MHSSC) for their outstanding contributions to teaching, administration, staff service, and school board service. Recipients of the prestigious award are chosen annually from among nominees submitted by school districts in Ulster, Orange, Northern Westchester/Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, and Dutchess Counties.

Each of the award recipients, Board of Education member Donald Greene, Special Education teacher Ruth Backenroth, Career & Technical Center assistant principal Victor Owen, and Student Services specialist Felice Amato will be formally recognized for their exceptional work in their respective fields. The awards will be presented at the MHSSC Awards for Excellence Ceremony and Dinner on October 14 at Anthony’s Pier 9 in New Windsor.

“Candidates are evaluated on the basis of support from a variety of sources including school administrators, parents, colleagues, students, and community members,” says Dr. Robert J. Michael, Dean of the School of Education at SUNY New Paltz. “The selection committee looks for individuals who have made a significant impact on students’ lives and learning and/or the school environment.”

Backenroth, an Ulster BOCES Special Education teacher at Lenape Elementary School in the New Paltz Central School District, will receive the 2004 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Barbara Zolnowski, Backenroth’s supervisor of the last 10 years, says the Special Education teacher is dedicated and committed to the unique needs of her students. “No challenge is too great, no task too difficult, and ‘impossible’ is not part of Mrs. Backenroth’s methodology,” Zolnowski says.

Backenroth has worked with special education students since she began her career in 1980. In 1985 she came to Ulster BOCES to teach Life Skills Development, a program designed for students whose learning rate is severely below average. She has served this special population throughout her 19 years at Ulster BOCES and currently works with several severely physically, medically, and cognitively impaired elementary school-age students.

Owen, assistant principal at the Ulster BOCES Career & Technical Center in Port Ewen, will receive the Award for Excellence in Administration. Gary Suraci, principal at Ulster BOCES Career & Technical Center, says Owen “has an innate ability to inspire students so that they can tangibly change the way they think about school, their lives, and each other. There has never been a situation or problem that he has ever walked away from and never one that he hasn’t resolved.”

Owen has been an integral member of the leadership team at the Career & Technical Center, providing vision to numerous initiatives related to improving student performance and ensuring a safe school environment. His vast technical knowledge, coupled with his intuitive sense of student behavioral needs, has resulted in program changes that have brought dramatic increases in student reading and math skills – all while maintaining a positive and focused student-centered school culture.

Felice Amato, student services specialist II at the Mid-Hudson Regional Information Center (MHRIC) in New Paltz, will receive the Award for Excellence for Support Staff Services. A 36-year employee at the MHRIC, Amato’s major job responsibility is support of Pentamation Student Management, a computer system that provides school districts with fully-integrated student registration, scheduling, attendance, discipline, and grade reporting capabilities.

Mikel Ledford, district attendance coordinator and school social worker at Washingtonville High School, has worked with Amato for the last 10 years. “Her responsiveness to our many requests, her commitment to follow-through, and her ability to think outside the box has been exemplary,” Ledford says. “Her professionalism and dedication to her work and to those she works with make her an outstanding example of the caliber of person who should receive the Mid-Hudson School Study Council Award for Excellence.”

Donald Greene, a civil engineer with the New York State Department of Transportation, has served on the Ulster BOCES Board of Education for 15 years as a representative of the Wallkill Central School District. Previously Greene served for 13 years as a Wallkill board of education member. He is described by colleagues as a dedicated school board member with a strong commitment to the children of Ulster County and New York State. Greene assumed a statewide leadership role in bringing the national High Schools That Work (HSTW) initiative to New York State and assisted the Ulster BOCES Career & Technical Center in becoming one of the first HSTW BOCES sites in New York State.

“I have never seen Don undertake any action in which the prime goals didn’t put the students first,” says Len Cane, member and former president of the Ulster BOCES Board of Education. “He is an asset to all of us involved in working to provide the best education possible to our current students and future leaders.”

Through its collaborative efforts with the School of Education at SUNY New Paltz, the MHSSC strives to enhance the quality of education by serving as a link between the college and school districts in the Mid-Hudson region. Granted an educational charter by the New York State Board of Regents in 1949, the Study Council's unique relationship with the School of Education fosters an important partnership between college research and field experience.

The MHSSC Awards Dinner begins at 7 PM with the awards presentation immediately following. For more information contact Susan Doyle, executive director of MHSSC, at 845-257-2820.