Students rally to save PE teacher's job

Jamie San Filippo, a phys ed teacher in the Levittown school district, doesn't like to talk about himself.

For example, he would never tell the school board he once gave a student $50 from his own pocket after the boy's belongings were stolen.

Then again, San Filippo didn't have to. His students told the board themselves recently as part of their plea that his job be saved.

The physical education teacher and coach, who grew up in Levittown and attended Division Avenue High School, was one of more than 65 educators in the district to get pink slips.

San Filippo, 33, says he is hopeful his job can be saved, but he's a realist and knows he has to apply elsewhere. It's a tough blow.

"I love going to work every day. There are not many people who can say that," he said. "I am definitely hopeful. I don't want to have to do something else. This is what I went to school for."

While the layoff is painful, San Filippo remains committed not only to the community in which he lives, but to the school district that has employed him for eight years. He doesn't plan to leave the area, though he knows teachers who are looking for work out of state.

"My family is here, my wife's family is here," he said. "I am just very hopeful, and I am committed to the school district. They gave me the ability to start working, to start a career here."

San Filippo has always been dedicated to his field. He worked in the warehouse at Fortunoff's for a minimum of 20 hours a week while he earned a bachelor's degree at Long Island University's C.W. Post Campus. He graduated in 2001 and went on to work in the Oyster Bay-East Norwich school district while pursuing his master's at Adelphi; he earned that degree in 2003.

The best part about his job, he said, is to see his students mature as the years pass. It's as true of the elementary students -- he encourages them to stay active and eat healthy -- as it is of his star runners.

San Filippo coaches boys and girls track. It was one of his track students, speaking at a packed school board meeting earlier this month, who told the school board that his coach was like a father.

"He is the only one who should be coaching our team," Michael Camacho, 18, a senior at MacArthur High, said after that meeting. "He loves our team. He's amazing."

The comments brought San Filippo to tears. Though he shrinks from the attention, he thought it brave that his students would speak out in front of a crowd of hundreds.

"You get attached to each and every one of the athletes," he said. "You see how hard they work, how much time they put in. By the time they are about to graduate, they are at their best and you reminisce about where they started and where they are now."