Lakeville School welcomed a new principal and a new assistant principal this school year. Principal Emily Zucal had been the assistant principal at Lakeville for five years, and became principal following the retirement of Phyllis Feldman. Neepa Redito joins Lakeville as its newest assistant principal.
In a welcoming letter to Lakeville parents, Zucal said that it has been her “honor and privilege” to serve as Lakeville’s assistant principal and that now, as principal, she plans to “uphold Lakeville’s commitment to academic rigor, to providing opportunities for students to acquire 20th-century skills and to continue and grow Lakeville’s rich tradition of family involvement.”
She also plans to do all that she can to “ensure that Lakeville is a place in which all students feel physically safe and emotionally secure.” Zucal finds Lakeville to be “home to some of the warmest and most generous families” that she has met in her career as an educator.
Prior to coming to Lakeville, Zucal was principal of an elementary school in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, participated in the New York City Leadership Academy Aspiring Principals Program and taught second grade in Palisades, CA, and fourth grade in Brooklyn.
Her outside interests include exploring the North Fork of Long Island, running, biking, playing with her labradoodle, Cooper, and reading to her son.
Zucal holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and Curriculum from City College of the City University of New York, and a Bachelor of Arts in American Government from Smith College. She is certified to teach grades K–6, and holds a School Building Leader License.
Redito comes to Lakeville from the Herricks School District, where she most recently served as the elementary math and science coordinator. Prior to that, she was a senior manager and instructional lead in developing professional systems at Amplify, an educational technology company that produces materials pertaining to implementation of the Common Core Standards. Redito has also been a fifth-grade and a gifted-and-talented teacher in Herricks, produced educational content for Time Magazine for Kids, and worked for the Japanese Ministry of Education in Yamato, Japan.
She is excited to be Lakeville’s assistant principal because she feels that her “philosophy of and approach to education reflect the values and mission of the school.” She also believes that “cultivating students’ character and citizenship is as important as developing their academic knowledge and skills.”
Redito and her husband are the proud parents of two young children. She calls herself an “avid cook and baker, now more rustic than fancy with two helpers under the age of five.” She also enjoys traveling and reading The New Yorker.
She holds an Advanced Certificate in School Building & School District Leadership from St. John’s University. Redito earned her master’s degree in Childhood Education and holds a Professional Certification in Childhood Education, grades 1–6, both from New York University. She has her Bachelor of Arts in religion from Princeton University. Redito is a member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the National Science Teachers Association. She is the winner of the Association of Education Publishers Best Educational Reference Award and Best Instructional Materials Award.
