East Broadway taps two as top administrators

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Elementary schools across the county have been undergoing unexpected transitions recently brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. School districts have been forced to scramble and react to the instability for the last portion of the 2019-20 school year. However, for East Broadway Elementary School, in Seaford, and Abbey Lane Elementary School in Levittown, the shift for the 2020-21 school year was planned.

Levittown Schools recently named Jordan Margolis as East Broadway Elementary School’s principal. Margolis’s assistant principal for the upcoming school year will be Andrea Ferrari, who will also serve as the assistant principal at Abbey Lane.

Margolis, who serves as Levittown Public Schools’ assistant director of special education, will replace the recently retired Jeanmarie Wink at East Broadway.

“It’s an honor to be in this position and I am looking forward to supporting the students, families and staff at East Broadway Elementary,” he said. “I have a great respect for the role of principal and will do my best to set up our students for success, both academically and emotionally.”

Margolis, 41, of Babylon, has served as the assistant director of special education since 2015. The district said that Margolis has “showcased his exceptional leadership abilities in this role as he maintained special education programs and services, chaired the social-emotional learning curriculum committee, developed and supported crisis intervention protocols throughout the district.” Prior to this role, Margolis was a school social worker at Jonas E. Salk Middle School, where he supported students and their families, along with staff, through the school’s services and character education initiatives.

He began his career as a lecturer at Assumption University in Bangkok, Thailand where he taught English to freshmen and held tutoring classes. His work continued when he arrived in New York and served as a school social worker at the Children’s Aid Society, P.S. 208 and P.S. 185. This was followed by a position as a school- and clinic-based social worker at the Interfaith Medical Center Child and Adolescent Clinic in Brooklyn.

Margolis attended Loyola University in Maryland, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology and history, with a minor in secondary education. He continued his education at the Hunter College School of Social Work and Long Island University-Post where he earned his Master of Social Work degree with a clinical specialization and a certificate in educational leadership. Margolis is a licensed social worker and holds certifications in school district leader/school building leader and permanent school social work.

Ferrari, 42, of Massapequa Park, was appointed as assistant principal of both East Broadway and Abbey Lane after serving as assistant director of elementary education in the district. Ferrari knows the district well, having grown up in it. She graduated from General Douglas MacArthur High School in 1996. She went on to receive her Bachelor of Science in elementary and special education from SUNY Geneseo, her Master of Science in education in literature from CUNY Queens College and her advanced certificate for educational leadership from LIU Post.

Before her role as Levittown’s assistant director of elementary education, Ferrari was the elementary instructional curriculum coordinator at Fifth Avenue Elementary School in East Northport. She also served as a reading teacher at Northport Middle School, a kindergarten teacher at St. Ignatius Loyola School, a special education coach, a fourth- and fifth-grade self-contained special education teacher and a kindergarten special education inclusion teacher at P.S. 58 School of Heroes in Maspeth.

“I am so excited to be a part of East Broadway and Abbey Lane and work with the wonderful staff, students and families,” said Ferrari.