Garden City Schools' Employee Spotlight: Linda Caperna

January's Behind-the-Scenes: Employee Spotlight is focused on Linda Caperna, the speech therapist at Locust School.

Caperna has worked in the district for the last nine years and has been employed as a speech therapist for almost 30 years.

“Linda is dedicated to the children and extremely conscientious,” Locust principal Jean Ricotta said. “She is always pleasant, cooperative and willing to go above and beyond what is asked of her.”

Catherine Wheeler, director of Pupil Personnel Services, added, “Mrs. Caperna is child-centered and researches strategies and technology to meet children’s varying needs. She is compassionate and professional.”

Dr. Kelly Spagnola, Committee on Special Education chair, described Caperna as "passionate." "Her wealth of experience and knowledge is a great asset to our school community," she said.

Caperna is married and has a daughter in first grade. She enjoys cooking, reading, boating and antiquing. “She works cooperatively with the classroom teachers, has a wonderful rapport with the children and is always excited about implementing new practices,” Principal Ricotta said.

Linda Polant, first grade teacher at Locust, said, “The Locust staff feels lucky to have such a helpful clinician who is always providing resources and willing to share ideas on how to best support students.”

“Mrs. Caperna’s caliber of instruction is outstanding and we are fortunate to have her at Locust,” added Principal Ricotta.

Submitted by the Garden City School District