Math educator adds to prestigious career

When the nation’s best athletes finish their careers, they are typically rewarded with a spot in the hall of fame of their respective sport. Long Island’s top math teachers earn the same honor.

Joanne Lufrano, a retired math teacher from Valley Stream District 30, was inducted in the Long Island Math Educators Hall of Fame on Nov. 19 at the Fox Hollow restaurant in Woodbury.

Lufrano taught at the Shaw Avenue School for 25 years, retiring in 2012. She started as a first-grade teacher, then moved on to third-grade before spending her last five years as the building’s math specialist. In that role, she worked with students who needed extra help, supported other teachers during their math lessons, and worked to strengthen the district’s math curriculum. Lufrano created pacing calendars for grades 3-6 so teachers would know how much time to spend on each skill, and created chapter tests.

But her distinguished career goes beyond Shaw Avenue. She was assistant director of the Valley Stream Teacher’s Center, president of the Nassau County Math Teachers Association in the 1990s, has represented elementary teachers for the Association of Mathematics Teachers of New York State, and has presented at numerous conferences.

Since retiring, Lufrano has remained a math consultant to District 30. She teaches at SUNY Old Westbury in the Leadership in Elementary Mathematics program — which she once attended as a student. There, she helps young teachers learn about the new Common Core Learning Standards in math, and also observes them in their classrooms.

Lufrano also teaches a math methods course at Molloy College. She is a lead organizer for Nassau County Family Math Day, an annual event in Bethpage in April that typically draws about 500 families, and is the chairwoman of the How to Make Math Count Conference which will be held at Molloy on Jan. 9 for elementary and middle school math teachers.

She pointed out that people are embarrassed when they can’t read, but willingly joke about not being able to do math. “That’s not acceptable,” she said. “You do math every minute of the day. It’s all around us and you’re doing it all the time.”

Lufrano noted that while most elementary teachers think of themselves as reading teachers, math was the area where she really wanted to stand out as an educator. She wanted her students to do more than just open their textbooks and solve the problems — she wanted them to think mathematically and realize how important numbers are in their daily lives, whether it is telling time or counting money.

“Anything worthwhile is worth the work,” she said, “and I really wanted my students to know that.”

Amy Pernick, who worked with Lufrano at Shaw Avenue as a teacher and later as assistant principal, congratulated her former colleague. “She is an incredible educator who always put her students first,” said Pernick, now the principal of the building. “She was also a mentor to so many of the teachers at Shaw Avenue. She always had the ‘tricks’ to help with solving math problems.”  

Lufrano, of Point Lookout, said she really enjoyed her 25 years in District 30 and the people that she worked with. Outside of the school, math is in her family. Her husband, John, also is in the Math Educators Hall of Fame, was once director of math for the Valley Stream Central High School District and was heavily involved with Math Olympiad. Her daughter, Janine Ferranti, is a math teacher at South High School.

Lufrano’s name will be added to a plaque, along with the three other inductees from this year, that hangs at the office of the Math Olympiads For Elementary and Middle Schools. Lufrano said being selected to the Hall of Fame is an honor, but she has never sought the recognition. “To me it’s just what I did,” she said of her math career. “I’m in really nice company. I’m very humbled to be a part of it.”