Lynbrook scholarship named for Santo Barbarino

Dr. Santo Barbarino’s untimely passing in late-August will not soon be forgotten by the Lynbrook community — the Lynbrook Teachers Association announced a scholarship in Barbarino’s honor at the Sept.12 Board of Education meeting.

Craig Kirchenberg, president of the teachers association, said that because of the group’s structure and experience in setting up scholarship funds they were able to launch the fund rather quickly.

“My intention is to let everyone in the community know about it make this a joint community effort to honor a man who was really all about community,” he said.

Angelo Mancuso, former vice principal at Lynbrook High School who retired in June, initially brought up the idea for the scholarship. Mancuso worked closely with Barbarino for years, especially when he was principal of the high school, Kirchenberg said.

Kirchenberg then took the idea and ran with it, launching the fund on Sept. 12. He said the next step in the process is to find people in the community who would be interested in establishing parameters for the scholarship and ultimately selecting recipients down the road. “I’m hoping that we have a few people from a few different areas of the community to be able to get together and come up with those kinds of parameters,” he said. Kirchenberg is hoping to find some interested people in the coming weeks.

At Superintendent’s Conference Day, prior to the school year starting, Kirchenberg said he shared a story about Barbarino to those in attendance, including administrators, faculty and board members. He thought back to an interview committee he served on with Barbarino. The candidate asked Kirchenberg why the Lynbrook High School was a good place to work. Kirchenberg, who is now in his 13th year as an English teacher at Lynbrook High School, said it’s the school’s family atmosphere.

“When Dr. Barbarino was the principal of Lynbrook High School he embodied that spirit — that family atmosphere,” he said. “You could feel it from the moment you walked in.” Barbarino served as principal of the high school from 1986 to 2006.