New Coordinators Named for Lindenhurst

The Lindenhurst Union Free School District recently named Dr. Concetta Russo and Stephen Posselt as special education coordinators for the district, and Shelita Watkis as coordinator of foreign language and ESL.

Dr. Russo’s experience in the special education field spans 35 years and includes work as director of special education with the Massapequa Public Schools, consultant and staff developer to several schools and districts, assistant professor and founding program director for the Graduate Special Education Department for Seton Hall University in New Jersey and a position as full time assistant professor in the Graduate Special Education Department at St. John’s University. The published author has also penned works on topics like reading and response to intervention.

Posselt graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies from SUNY Old Westbury and earned a Master of Science degree in Education from Dowling College. He began his career with the Lindenhurst School District as a social studies teacher in both general and special education classrooms in 2004 and obtained an additional Master of Science degree in Educational Leadership from Albany’s College of St. Rose.

Watkis received a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of the West Indies in Barbados and a Master of Arts TESOL and Certificate of Advanced Study in Educational Administration from Stony Brook University. She joins Lindenhurst after a long career at Eastport South Manor Junior Senior High School, where she taught Spanish for 10 years. Prior to that, she’s taught at the Benjamin Banneker Academy in Brooklyn, the Pat Kam Early Childhood Center in Uniondale and the Princess Margaret Secondary School in St. John’s Antigua.