Lee Posniack, who has taught the sciences for over thirty years, will retire this school year. As a result, the Board of Education hired former leave replacement, Eric Dalio. Moreover, the science department will see staffing and curricular changes, including two new classes for next year.
Posniack has considered retirement for a couple of years. After recently qualifying for retirement benefits, he decided he didn’t need to continue his career. “I don’t really have to do that,” he said, “because I don’t have to, why should I?”
Posniack is still looking to “keep [his] mind going” for after retirement. He also hopes to prepare for his son’s college education, which will happen in a few years. Currently, Posniack’s post-Haldane plans will “involve some form of teaching.” He is considering a job that trains teachers to use an online educational platform.
The Board of Education hired Eric Dalio, who had previously replaced band teacher Jessica Stein on her maternity leave. However, Dalio will not replace Posniack as the new Earth Science and Biology teacher. Gabriel Horn, who instructed Regents Earth Science in addition to Posniack, will take over the entire course for next year. AP Biology teacher Mark Patinella will cover the Regents biology course.
Dalio will still play an important role. In fact, his hiring is part of a department-wide initiative. High School Principal Julia Sniffen, who was involved in the hiring process, said the administration was “capitalizing” on Posniack’s retirement. “At times, shifting personnel through attrition is the best way to shift funding to make programmatic changes,” Sniffen said. Looking to have an “interdisciplinary STEAM” (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) program, his retirement presented an opportunity to change the science program.
Dalio worked in software engineering, project management, and professional development consulting. He also has a background in music, earning a Bachelor of Music focused on the Saxophone. “There’s just so many layers to when you think about STEAM,” Sniffen said, and “Dalio’s various experiences speak to this position.”
Dalio’s employment will bring staffing and curricular changes. The Principles of Engineering elective will shift from physics teacher Kieran Lynch to Dalio. In addition, Dalio will teach two new courses next year, STEAM I and STEAM II.
STEAM I, offered to freshmen and sophomores, is an introduction to the core aspects of STEAM. STEAM II, offered to juniors and seniors, will build on those basics, diving deeper into more advanced project design.
Sniffen said both classes will be project-based, and they will emphasize the process of completing a project. “It’s so much more of a real-world application to teaching and learning,” she said. “There’s not always the systemic process of managing.”
Starting next year, the new courses will be taught in the high school. Once construction of the capital project is complete, they will be located in the new STEAM classroom. Posniack will continue teaching until the end of this year, and Dalio will begin teaching this September.
