Valley Stream District 13 welcomes new school superintendent

Dr. Judith LaRocca will become Valley Stream School District 13’s schools superintendent Jan 15. The outgoing superintendent, Dr. Constance Evelyn, will step down after a six-year tenure Jan. 14.
LaRocca, now the district’s assistant superintendent for instruction, will oversee the learning experience of roughly 2,000 children across the district’s four elementary schools in a year vexed by constant change, uncertainty and hardship brought by a global coronavirus pandemic—with no end in sight.
LaRocca got her start in education as a middle school math teacher for the Massapequa School District in 1996. In 2003, she took on her first administrative role as a staff developer and shared data expert for the Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services, during which time she earned her degree in school district administration from Stony Brook University. In 2007, she was brought on as director of curriculum, instruction and technology for the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park Union Free School District, where she oversaw curriculum, testing, professional development, data management and technology infrastructure. 
Picked by Evelyn for the assistant superintendent’s post, LaRocca has held the position since 2016. She has continued to enjoy a close partnership with Evelyn over the past five years and was widely considered her logical successor. LaRocca is poised to carry on the touted progress made by her predecessor into the future, but questions loom as to what will happen during the pandemic.
Regarding Covid-19, teachers and students continue to experience positive cases of the virus as an ongoing reality. In the last two weeks, 21 students and six staff members in the district have self-reported as testing positive for the coronavirus. One class has also been forced to quarantine.

“We have worked very closely with the Nassau County Department of Health” to implement a “layered prevention strategy…that includes mask-wearing, social distancing, hand-washing, and monitoring students with illness,” LaRocca said.
Improving indoor air quality was the latest focus, according to LaRocca, serving as a strong deterrent against virus transmission. The district installed new Uni filter air vents and air purifier filtration systems in all four schools, using HEPA filters designed to eliminate virtually all coronavirus particles in the air.
“All of our indoor air quality was up to standard, but before Covid, people weren’t thinking about indoor air quality at the level that would kill viruses,” LaRocca said. “We were certainly up to code…and new systems are an additional layer of protection.” She declined to comment whether the filtration systems were suited to filter the virus at the start of the school year in September.
When asked if she would use her new position to encourage parents to vaccinate their children, as recommended by the federal Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, she choose to tread cautiously on what she considered a delicate matter. “I’m not sure that’s something I really want to talk about. I do not want to comment on things that may be polarizing to certain people,” she said.
While state Education Department guidelines for school reopening did include optional provisions for hybrid or remote learning for families with special needs, LaRocca, following the example of her predecessor and many districts, will carry forward with full-time in-person learning for students. However, in the event of a major district-wide outbreak, “all our schools are fully equipped to go into a full remote-learning environment within 24 hours, so all of our teachers and classes are remote-ready,” LaRocca said.
In following recent Education Department requirements, District 13 has also taken strides to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in its schools, the incoming acting superintendent said.
LaRocca has been credited with leading the charge both in diversity hiring and in establishing a culturally responsive curriculum. LaRocca has used the Culturally Responsive–Sustaining Education framework, as laid out by the state, to shape the curriculum and promote an awareness and appreciation for distinct racial, linguistic, and cultural identities among students.
LaRocca affirmed the district’s continued commitment toward hiring a diverse teaching corps that reflects and represents all students. District 13 has seen a modest bump in the number of teachers of color in schools across the district—from 5 to 19 in the last seven years—averaging two new minority teachers a year. In 2018-19, among the 176 professional staff members across the four elementary schools, 12 of them were from minority backgrounds.
According to a 2015-16 survey by the National Center for Education Statistics, public elementary and secondary schools, on average, 19 percent of teachers were of color. And schools with greater racial and ethnic diversity in their student populations also tended to have considerably more racial and ethnic diversity among teachers.
District 13 is a solidly majority-minority district. According to 2019 demographic data from U.S. News & World Report, roughly 30 percent of students in the district are Hispanic, 22 percent are Asian, and 22 percent are Black. But its teaching staff remains overwhelmingly white.
Research suggests that Latino and Black students who have teachers who match their race or ethnicity showed improvement in a host of educational outcomes—from higher test scores and graduation rates to fewer suspensions and decreased dropout rates.
When discussing diversity hiring policies and practices, LaRocca stressed that teaching is a “competitive field” and noted using multiple measures to evaluate the quality of a candidate’s application, including character attributes. She noted that GPA, test scores and length of experience are imperfect predictors of a teacher’s capacity and potential performance, which can often bar promising applicants of color from getting their foot in the door.
La Rocca, however, would not confirm whether a long-term strategic diversity hiring plan was or will be in place to recruit new teachers of color and retain those who are already in the district long-term. Instead, she cited changes in the culture of the staff and the already established supports all teachers have in place.
“First, there are the practices that we always do to retain any teacher, including robust professional development, summer learning and first-year mentor programs…but also the importance of having a sense of belonging,” LaRocca said.
As for her vision for the district, LaRocca said her priorities are to continue to build on the capital improvements made possible through District 13’s $35 million bond passed in 2015, which led to the updating and upgrading of district facilitates.