New Brentwood schools Superintendent Wanda Ortiz-Rivera's long journey to district's top job
Brentwood interim schools Superintendent Wanda Ortiz-Rivera came to New York at age 16 without her parents. She says she has found family in the Brentwood district. Credit: Morgan Campbell
When Wanda Ortiz-Rivera learned she would be appointed Brentwood’s next superintendent, her mind rewound to 1987, when she arrived in New York from Puerto Rico.
She was 16. The only English words she knew were father, mother and duck, plus a children’s song. In her suitcase, she had flip-flops, tank tops, shorts and a Vox dictionary. And she had $50 in cash. She came to attend the now-defunct Dowling College in Oakdale.
Now, 36 years later, Ortiz-Rivera, 53, of Stony Brook, is the top administrator of the largest public school district on Long Island, overseeing the operations of 17 buildings, a staff of 3,500, and a budget of more than $560 million. She became the interim superintendent of the 18,000-student district after Superintendent Richard Loeschner retired Sept. 29. Her current salary, she said, is $240,000.
“I was this little girl, so fragile,” Ortiz-Rivera recalled of that summer in an interview from her office last month. “Now I'm here doing this. It's just a blessing.”
Ortiz-Rivera joined the Brentwood district in 2001 as a dual language teacher at Southwest Elementary School and rose through the ranks. Most recently, she was the assistant superintendent for secondary education and bilingual education K-12.
Dafny Irizarry, president of the Long Island Latino Teachers Association, said she believes Ortiz-Rivera is the only Latina superintendent out of 68 districts in Suffolk County.
Hispanic students account for nearly 90% of the student body in Brentwood. About 7,000 students, or roughly 1 in 3, are English language learners, just like Ortiz-Rivera once was. The district also reported more than 3,000 immigrant students last school year.
Irizarry — who came from Puerto Rico to study at Stony Brook University at 19 — called Ortiz-Rivera “an inspiration.”
“I see that we could get far and that we are role models for our students,” Irizarry said. “You could come here as a teenager and not speak a language. You can learn the language, speak with an accent but still be successful.”
Ortiz-Rivera had wanted to see New York since she was 9 or 10, when she saw a neighbor returning from the city with new shoes and beautiful clothes.
She asked the woman where they came from and she learned of the Macy’s flagship store in Manhattan. By the time she finished high school, she already had told her parents she wanted to go to New York to study English.
“But I really wanted to go to Macy's,” she said with a laugh.
Her father, Mariano Ortiz, a science teacher who went to medical school when Ortiz-Rivera was a teenager and later became a doctor, would tear up when he remembered letting her go at such a young age.
"Every time he remembered that his little girl left, he used to cry [and say], 'I can't believe that you left and I allowed you to leave, you know? But look where you are now,' " Ortiz-Rivera recalled.
Ortiz, who died in August at 79, used to watch the board meetings from Puerto Rico. He was the first person she called after she learned of the appointment.
"He was so proud because he knew how much I love the kids," said Ortiz-Rivera, who choked up when speaking about her father.
Her mother, Mildred Rivera, who had her first child, Ortiz-Rivera, at 17, and three more children by 27, wanted her to go and have the opportunities she didn't have, Ortiz-Rivera said. Her mother became a nurse at 40.
As for Ortiz-Rivera, she said she was looking for a challenge.
"It was more like an adventure," she said. "My friends spoke so much about New York. New York this. New York that. And Macy's. … I wanted to see it."
And she did, about three months after she began studying at Dowling, which she had applied to because she heard about the school in Puerto Rico. By then, she had made a friend, Eileen Soriano, the only student she found who spoke Spanish. They went to the department store on 34th Street together.
Ortiz-Rivera, who didn’t know the word “turtleneck” until she saw someone wearing one that fall, bought a pink turtleneck sweater and jeans to adjust to the seasonal changes in New York.
The word “turtleneck” alone made her giggle.
“Why is it called a turtleneck? You know? With the word turtle and neck?” she said. “To me, the language is funny sometimes … to see the picture that it creates in your mind.”
After she arrived, Ortiz-Rivera learned English by watching television news and reading textbooks, at first painstakingly translating from her dictionaries.
That winter, she met Robert Kordic, a student of Croatian descent at Dowling whom she married in 1994. They have one son, 23.
Ortiz-Rivera graduated from Dowling with a bachelor’s degree in 1991. She earned two master’s degrees, one in business administration from Dowling in 1992 and another in bilingual/bicultural education from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 2004.
In recounting her journey, Ortiz-Rivera frequently brought up those who helped her along the way.
There was her father’s childhood friend, Diego Colon, who taught Spanish literature at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn. He flew with her to New York and dropped her off at Dowling. And David Ring, who worked for the college and oversaw the dorms she lived in, and his wife, Victoria, for whom she babysat. Victoria Ring is a teacher at Brentwood's North Middle School.
David Ring, a retired college professor and administrator, said Ortiz-Rivera could easily connect with others and infuse calm in challenging situations.
“It’s something you can’t teach,” said Ring, of Sayville. “She’s the kind of person who can relate as easily to an elementary school kid as she can to the board of education or a parent.”
Then there’s her lasting friendship with Soriano, whose mother, Gladys Rodriguez, of Brentwood, took her in. Rodriguez had emigrated from Puerto Rico at around the same age Ortiz-Rivera did, but with her family, Soriano said.
“She’s like my mother’s other daughter,” said Soriano, of Ronkonkoma, a teacher at Southwest Elementary School.
With her parents and brother in Puerto Rico and her two sisters in Florida, Ortiz-Rivera said the Brentwood school community became her family.
“In every single student that we have here, I see my family,” she said. “If I am going to help the lady that comes to registration and she's having some trouble or something, or she's not happy … I see my grandmother.
“I always want to help,” she added.
Loeschner, the former superintendent, used to coin a slogan for the district every year. This year, it’s “better than ever.”
“She's going to be fantastic and take the district [to] places I could never have dreamed of," he said.
As for Ortiz-Rivera's interim status, school board President Eileen Felix said in a statement that the board is "very confident that Ms. Ortiz-Rivera will do an outstanding job" this year and "hopefully, in the years that follow," adding "there is no active superintendent search.”
Ortiz-Rivera said her priority is the students, whom she calls “my kids,” and that includes improving graduation rates and preparing students to be college-and-career ready.
High school graduation rates in Brentwood have hovered around 75% in recent years. In the 2021-22 school year, the rate was 78%, lower than the 87% statewide.
Ortiz-Rivera said she wants students to be reading on grade levels and have more access to college credits. She wants to see more CTE pathways — CTE is short for Career and Technical Education — more language programs and more field trips to college campuses.
“I want to see my kids succeed,” she said.
And if there's one thing she wants her students to take away from her story, it's “anything is possible.”
“You can do anything you want, because a little girl from Puerto Rico whose parents didn't have the funds to send her to New York [came], and how things happen … when you want to do great things,” she said.
When Wanda Ortiz-Rivera learned she would be appointed Brentwood’s next superintendent, her mind rewound to 1987, when she arrived in New York from Puerto Rico.
She was 16. The only English words she knew were father, mother and duck, plus a children’s song. In her suitcase, she had flip-flops, tank tops, shorts and a Vox dictionary. And she had $50 in cash. She came to attend the now-defunct Dowling College in Oakdale.
Wanda Ortiz-Rivera in a photograph from 1987, just before she left Puerto Rico to travel to New York. Credit: Ortiz-Rivera family
Now, 36 years later, Ortiz-Rivera, 53, of Stony Brook, is the top administrator of the largest public school district on Long Island, overseeing the operations of 17 buildings, a staff of 3,500, and a budget of more than $560 million. She became the interim superintendent of the 18,000-student district after Superintendent Richard Loeschner retired Sept. 29. Her current salary, she said, is $240,000.
“I was this little girl, so fragile,” Ortiz-Rivera recalled of that summer in an interview from her office last month. “Now I'm here doing this. It's just a blessing.”
WHAT TO KNOW
- Wanda Ortiz-Rivera, 53, of Stony Brook, recently became the top administrator of Brentwood schools, the largest public school district on Long Island.
Ortiz-Rivera came to study at the now-defunct Dowling College at age 16 from Puerto Rico, speaking only a few words of English.
- She’s now in charge of a district where roughly 1 in 3 students are English language learners, like she once was.
Ortiz-Rivera joined the Brentwood district in 2001 as a dual language teacher at Southwest Elementary School and rose through the ranks. Most recently, she was the assistant superintendent for secondary education and bilingual education K-12.
Dafny Irizarry, president of the Long Island Latino Teachers Association, said she believes Ortiz-Rivera is the only Latina superintendent out of 68 districts in Suffolk County.
Hispanic students account for nearly 90% of the student body in Brentwood. About 7,000 students, or roughly 1 in 3, are English language learners, just like Ortiz-Rivera once was. The district also reported more than 3,000 immigrant students last school year.
Irizarry — who came from Puerto Rico to study at Stony Brook University at 19 — called Ortiz-Rivera “an inspiration.”
Dafny Irizarry, president of the Long Island Latino Teachers Association, also came from Puerto Rico to study on Long Island, at age 19. Credit: Jeffrey Basinger
“I see that we could get far and that we are role models for our students,” Irizarry said. “You could come here as a teenager and not speak a language. You can learn the language, speak with an accent but still be successful.”
Drawn to adventure (and Macy's)
Ortiz-Rivera had wanted to see New York since she was 9 or 10, when she saw a neighbor returning from the city with new shoes and beautiful clothes.
She asked the woman where they came from and she learned of the Macy’s flagship store in Manhattan. By the time she finished high school, she already had told her parents she wanted to go to New York to study English.
“But I really wanted to go to Macy's,” she said with a laugh.
Her father, Mariano Ortiz, a science teacher who went to medical school when Ortiz-Rivera was a teenager and later became a doctor, would tear up when he remembered letting her go at such a young age.
"Every time he remembered that his little girl left, he used to cry [and say], 'I can't believe that you left and I allowed you to leave, you know? But look where you are now,' " Ortiz-Rivera recalled.
Ortiz, who died in August at 79, used to watch the board meetings from Puerto Rico. He was the first person she called after she learned of the appointment.
"He was so proud because he knew how much I love the kids," said Ortiz-Rivera, who choked up when speaking about her father.
Wanda Ortiz-Rivera with her father, Mariano Ortiz, in 1988. Credit: Ortiz-Rivera family
Her mother, Mildred Rivera, who had her first child, Ortiz-Rivera, at 17, and three more children by 27, wanted her to go and have the opportunities she didn't have, Ortiz-Rivera said. Her mother became a nurse at 40.
As for Ortiz-Rivera, she said she was looking for a challenge.
"It was more like an adventure," she said. "My friends spoke so much about New York. New York this. New York that. And Macy's. … I wanted to see it."
And she did, about three months after she began studying at Dowling, which she had applied to because she heard about the school in Puerto Rico. By then, she had made a friend, Eileen Soriano, the only student she found who spoke Spanish. They went to the department store on 34th Street together.
Ortiz-Rivera, who didn’t know the word “turtleneck” until she saw someone wearing one that fall, bought a pink turtleneck sweater and jeans to adjust to the seasonal changes in New York.
The word “turtleneck” alone made her giggle.
“Why is it called a turtleneck? You know? With the word turtle and neck?” she said. “To me, the language is funny sometimes … to see the picture that it creates in your mind.”
After she arrived, Ortiz-Rivera learned English by watching television news and reading textbooks, at first painstakingly translating from her dictionaries.
That winter, she met Robert Kordic, a student of Croatian descent at Dowling whom she married in 1994. They have one son, 23.
Ortiz-Rivera graduated from Dowling with a bachelor’s degree in 1991. She earned two master’s degrees, one in business administration from Dowling in 1992 and another in bilingual/bicultural education from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 2004.
Wanda Ortiz-Rivera attends a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration parade Friday at the Gail E. Kirkham Northeast Elementary School. Credit: Rick Kopstein
In Brentwood, 'I see my family'
In recounting her journey, Ortiz-Rivera frequently brought up those who helped her along the way.
There was her father’s childhood friend, Diego Colon, who taught Spanish literature at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn. He flew with her to New York and dropped her off at Dowling. And David Ring, who worked for the college and oversaw the dorms she lived in, and his wife, Victoria, for whom she babysat. Victoria Ring is a teacher at Brentwood's North Middle School.
David Ring, a retired college professor and administrator, said Ortiz-Rivera could easily connect with others and infuse calm in challenging situations.
“It’s something you can’t teach,” said Ring, of Sayville. “She’s the kind of person who can relate as easily to an elementary school kid as she can to the board of education or a parent.”
Then there’s her lasting friendship with Soriano, whose mother, Gladys Rodriguez, of Brentwood, took her in. Rodriguez had emigrated from Puerto Rico at around the same age Ortiz-Rivera did, but with her family, Soriano said.
“She’s like my mother’s other daughter,” said Soriano, of Ronkonkoma, a teacher at Southwest Elementary School.
With her parents and brother in Puerto Rico and her two sisters in Florida, Ortiz-Rivera said the Brentwood school community became her family.
“In every single student that we have here, I see my family,” she said. “If I am going to help the lady that comes to registration and she's having some trouble or something, or she's not happy … I see my grandmother.
“I always want to help,” she added.
To be 'better than ever'
Loeschner, the former superintendent, used to coin a slogan for the district every year. This year, it’s “better than ever.”
“She's going to be fantastic and take the district [to] places I could never have dreamed of," he said.
Former Superintendent Richard Loeschner, who retired Sept. 29, has praise for Ortiz-Rivera. Credit: Steve Pfost
As for Ortiz-Rivera's interim status, school board President Eileen Felix said in a statement that the board is "very confident that Ms. Ortiz-Rivera will do an outstanding job" this year and "hopefully, in the years that follow," adding "there is no active superintendent search.”
Ortiz-Rivera said her priority is the students, whom she calls “my kids,” and that includes improving graduation rates and preparing students to be college-and-career ready.
High school graduation rates in Brentwood have hovered around 75% in recent years. In the 2021-22 school year, the rate was 78%, lower than the 87% statewide.
Ortiz-Rivera said she wants students to be reading on grade levels and have more access to college credits. She wants to see more CTE pathways — CTE is short for Career and Technical Education — more language programs and more field trips to college campuses.
“I want to see my kids succeed,” she said.
And if there's one thing she wants her students to take away from her story, it's “anything is possible.”
“You can do anything you want, because a little girl from Puerto Rico whose parents didn't have the funds to send her to New York [came], and how things happen … when you want to do great things,” she said.
Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, she worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, D.C.
