As the school year ends, we say  goodbye to Ms. Fugazzi.  Ms. Fugazzi has been a health teacher at Wantagh High School for 32 years.  In addition, Ms. Fugazzi has also taught seventh and eighth grade health and PUsh In Health in the elementary schools.  She taught in Forest Lake and Mandalay Elementary schools and has stated, “It was a lot of fun working with fourth and fifth graders in addition to the older kids!”  Along with serving as an amazing teacher throughout our schools, Ms. Fugazzi has also been an amazing volleyball coach.  She has been coaching the Boys Varsity Volleyball team at the high school and the Boys Winter Volleyball team at the middle school for over a decade.  

Ms. Fugazzi plans to enjoy her summer in Montauk and return back in the fall to continue coaching her volleyball teams.  She states that her biggest accomplishment over the past 32 years was, “Being able to enjoy my career for 32 years and never burn out. It was time to leave but my greatest accomplishment has been being able to do this for so long and being able to make my students really think.” Ms, Fugazzi has had many stories over her time at Wantagh High School and Wantagh Middle School, but one of her favorite stories is being able to start the Boy’s Volleyball Program in 1992 and helping the program take flight.  Ms. Fugazzi has shared a lot of laughs with her teams and has had a number of players continue their passion for the sport and become coaches themselves.  

As she reflects on her time in the Wantagh School District, Ms. Fugazzi states that cell phones have changed our schools the most.  “I didn’t even have a desktop when I started here and then the cell phone came and there is a worse side with distraction but they are an instrument in education. That radically changed education.”  Ms. Fugazzi’s favorite thing about teaching at Wantagh High School is the sense of family that Wantagh provides.  She has taught many siblings and has seen many people pass through Wantagh High School  “Students go to all the events, there’s a lot of support. People cheer their friends on and it’s nice to see stands filled with fans. It was never hard to come here and teach everyday.”  Ms. Fugazzi will miss the students most of all.  She loved teaching students value life lessons that will stay with them as they enter college and beyond.  Ms. Fugazzi was an amazing teacher at Wantagh and she will be very missed.