Since it was first started in 1994 by Mr. Caravaggio, a few teachers have been involved. Last year when the previous teacher stepped down, Mr. McGroary had to go through his own interview to become the New Peer Leadership teacher.  Mr. McGroary is a Lindenhurst health teacher in both the Middle and High School.  He also teaches a Drugs and Social Issues class.  He is a bright teacher that is educating the youth in the steps to becoming the leaders of tomorrow. This is a new experience not just for his students but himself too. They will work together this year to learn new skills, make new friends, and step out of their boundaries.

Every year the students who want to join have to go through an application process.  Unfortunately this year, the class was cut down to 24 students, the application process took a little bit longer and was difficult. At first, it wasn’t clear to the students that there would be only one class and that we would have a change of teachers. Everyone got a little stressed and worried when Ms. Aurigemma, the previous PL teacher, told them that there will be a cut down to only 24 students. Nonetheless, everybody still worked hard and didn’t give up.

  To apply, students must hand in their progress reports, report cards, a questionnaire describing themselves as people, and teacher recommendation forms. This past year, many students were applying and there was only a limited amount of slots, a point system was created. If you handed in everything in time and made it to the morning meetings when they were set then you were good according to the point system. Everything that you handed in also played a part in it. Periodically people would be cut depending on the amount of points they got.

When it was learned Ms. Aurigemma would be stepping down from the position,  everyone was so curious on who the new teacher would be. Before summer vacation started, the people still in the process picked an interview time and that was the first time talking one on one with Mr. McGroary. During the interview, he asked personal and general questions. After a few days, the final list came out. It was definitely a long process, but everyone who went through it and didn’t quit should be proud of themselves. Those students who did get in should consider it a great accomplishment as they all worked very hard to achieve their goal.