After 20 years with the Farmingdale School District, Northside Elementary School Principal Elizabeth Craig Garavuso plans to retire at the end of the 2014-2015 school year.
“I love the people here,” Garavuso said. “Farmingdale is a solid middle-class community, where I found lots of families were very receptive to working with the schools and taking advice from teachers and administrators.”
Prior to her tenure in the Farmingdale Schools, Garavuso worked for St. Agnes Catholic School in Rockville Centre, as a math and computer teacher in the East Meadow Schools, and as the assistant principal of Oldfield Middle School in the Harborfields Central School District.
“Liz is truly an educational leader and will be extremely missed,” said Diane Anderson, assistant principal at Northside Elementary.
For Garavuso, the decision to become an administrator was cemented in curriculum, having wanted to assist teachers in finding ways to make students more successful. Her fondest memories with the school district have been times when she helped teachers gain a new set of skills.
“I came in this to help teachers,” she said, “and I have an extraordinary group of teachers, who are helpful and supportive.”
Following her retirement, Garavuso said she intends to move north of Albany, where she plans to build a home with her husband. Although she does not intend to continue her career as an educator or an administrator, she plans to use her time to travel and accomplish some of the other things she couldn’t do as principal.
“Liz has been a part of the Farmingdale schools since 1994 and has been a leader in our elementary program all that time,” said Farmingdale Schools Superintendent John Lorentz. “She will be sorely missed.”
According to Lorentz, with the school Board of Education’s acceptance of Garavuso’s retirement, it will begin its search for a new elementary school principal, with the goal of selecting someone by July 1.
Over the years, Garavuso said she worked with several superintendents over the years, but commended the fiscal planning of Lorentz and the Farmingdale schools above the rest.
“Finally, being able to work in a school district, where the present superintendent has done such extraordinary fiscal planning made me able to weather the first round of tax caps that allowed me to focus on the school instead of cuts,” Garavuso said.
