Jennifer Andersen, the new assistant principal at the Richard S. Sherman-Great Neck North Middle School, is not new to North Middle, having spent her entire two-decade teaching and administrative career at the school.
Prior to becoming North Middle’s assistant principal, Andersen served as dean of students starting in 2008. Her main responsibilities included managing student discipline and teaching students how to resolve problems and make better decisions, functioning as an integral component of administration by handling daily disciplinary matters and overall safety concerns and creating a partnership with individual students, parents, teacher and staff to help support student needs.
From 2004–08, Andersen was an eighth-grade team leader, in which she organized and ran team meetings to monitor student academic and emotional development. She also planned and facilitated parent meetings according to students’ needs and served as a liaison between team teachers, administration, parents and guidance counselors.
From 1996 until she became assistant principal, Andersen taught English at North Middle. She participated in curriculum writing that reflected the ever-growing needs of the English department, created English Language Arts (ELA) Common Core materials to help align students learning with the New York state standards and taught ELA classes to help prepare students for the eighth-grade exam.
Andersen received her Master of Arts in teaching English from SUNY-Stony Brook and her Bachelor of Arts in English from SUNY-Binghamton. She has a Secondary English Education-New York State Permanent Certification, School District Leader-New York State Permanent Certification and School District Building Leader-New York State Initial Certification.
Andersen calls North Middle her “second home,” having worked there for the past 20 years. Her responsibilities as dean of students provided her “with a greater understanding of how the building works like a system. When the assistant principal position opened up, it seemed like a natural transition for me. My love of children and my ability to solve problems, plus my two decades worth of experience in this building and my knowledge of its students, faculty and the community is an invaluable resource.”
Andersen is married with three school-age sons. She loves reading and watching baseball—the Yankees.
—Submitted by the Great Neck Public Schools
