By Alexander Serratelli ’12, News Editor

As the 2010-2011 school year comes to a close, The Minuteman would like to pay its respects to the teachers that are leaving this year. These distinguished faculty and staff members have benefitted Newark Academy for years.

After twenty years beloved Science teacher Ms Josephine Allocca is retiring. She spent her years at NA teaching chemistry and physics, among other sciences. She will be profoundly missed as she has formed many relationships with students over the past two decades. Trishna Kumar ’12, one of her current Physics students, remarked that Ms. Allocca “genuinely cares about her students and makes sure that they thoroughly understand the material, not just the facts.”

As many students have already noticed, MS science teacher Ms. Jennifer Blevins left NA earlier in the year.  We are also losing health teacher Mrs. Tara Anne DelRusso. Mrs. Delrusso was deeply appreciated by her students; Nikita Parekh ’12 commented that she had “an incredible ability to relate to her students.” We eagerly await the news of the births of both teachers’ babies!

Latin teacher Ms. Leonora Mahler is leaving NA, and with her departure ends the formal Latin program. She was brought in to teach the last generation of NA Latin students. We wish her luck in her future endeavors. Ms. Mahler will go on to teach at St. Luke’s in Connecticut.

Associate director of college counseling Ms. Suzanne Schafer is moving on to pursue other professional opportunities. Melanie Taub ’12, one of Ms. Schafer’s advisees, remarked that Ms. Schafer is “honest and candid. She offers her own opinion while being open to her advisees ideas. She has a nice balance.”

Lastly, The Minuteman wants to recognize our two advisors, Ms. Kirsti Morin and Mr. Neil Stourton. They will spend the 2011-2012 school year in Viterbo, Italy where Mr. Stourton is teaching for School Year Abroad. Buon viaggio!