ATF President Visit
Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, paid a momentous visit to Farmingdale High School on Friday, September 6, 2019. Her trip was inspired by Cordelia Anthony, a dedicated science teacher and the president of the Farmingdale Federation of Teachers.
Ms. Weingarten spent two hours touring the high school with Ms. Anthony, Superintendent Paul Defendini, Farmingdale High School Principal Dr. Samuel Thompson, and all the assistant superintendents. They took Ms. Weingarten into a variety of classes to meet with students, making stops at an automotive technology class, a culinary lesson, and ultimately, Ms. Anthony’s forensics class. Ms. Weingarten took time to chat with students and encouraged them to be fully engaged in their education.
Ms. Weingarten was impressed by both the variety and abundance of courses offered at Farmingdale School District, telling Superintendent Defendini, “What you are doing here is everything you want high school to be!”
“It was a really wonderful experience to have the AFT President Randi Weingarten come to recognize the work that I do as the local union president in Farmingdale,” said Cordelia Anthony. “She not only affirmed me as a labor leader, but as a classroom teacher too. Her visit also supported the work that our district is doing in terms of providing all students an opportunity to learn from a highly qualified teaching staff and to participate in a wide variety of academic pursuits.”