Beloved educators who died in Farmingdale high school band bus crash have streets renamed for them

Two streets near Farmingdale High School were renamed Tuesday to honor Beatrice Ferrari and Gina Pellettiere, beloved educators who were killed last year when the school’s marching band bus crashed on an upstate interstate.

In an afternoon ceremony on the school’s football field attended by hundreds of community members in "Daler" green, the women's families, who have said little publicly since the crash, and local elected officials addressed the crowd from a temporary stage set up for the occasion.

"When you drive past the street signs with my sister’s name on it, I hope it inspires you," said Dan Pellettiere, Pellettiere’s brother. "I hope it inspires you to learn new things. I hope it inspires you to share your passions, and I hope it inspires you to travel to places where you want to go and make no excuses. I hope it inspires you to stay close with your family. Use that sign as a reminder to call your loved ones and tell them that you love them."

Oyster Bay Town renamed 10th Avenue at Woodward Parkway in honor of Gina Pellettiere, the longtime band leader, and 11th Avenue in honor of Ferrari, band chaperone and a global studies teacher in Farmingdale schools for 32 years. Ferrari’s grandson, Luke, and Pellettiere’s young son, Joseph, unveiled the honorary signs. Joseph, age 2 when he lost his mother, wore a green baseball cap and beamed at the crowd.

Woodward Parkway, said Ferrari's daughters, Dr. Angela Ferrari-Aldieri and Dina Lopresto, had been home to their family for more than half a century. Ferrari-Aldieri recalled the American flag her mother flew from the corner of the house, the joy she took walking her grandchildren to the high school and the care that she took decorating the house for homecoming and graduation, when it was still held at the football field.

Woodward Parkway is where neighbors walk their dogs, where 5k races get run and parades pass by, said Lopresto. Her mother always went out to cheer the runners and give biscuits to the dogs, she said. She added, "She would be so honored and appreciative. We are overjoyed that in the future, people will pass this sign, see Bea Ferrari Way, and she will always be remembered."

On Sept. 21, 2023, Pellettiere and Ferrari were at the front of a bus carrying 40 student band members and four adults to band camp in rural Pennsylvania when it crashed on Interstate 84 near Wawayanda, in upstate Orange County. Several occupants, including the bus driver, Ferrari and Pellettiere, were ejected from the bus. The driver was badly injured. Ferrari and Pellettiere were killed.

At the time of the crash, Ferrari, 77, was retired from teaching but serving as a band chaperone. Some had called her the "grandmother" of the band. Pellettiere, 43, of Massapequa, had taught music for close to two decades. Known as "Ms. P" to her students, she grew up in Hicksville and played some 20 instruments.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, in his remarks, recalled the dawning panic in the first hours after the crash, as officials learned just how bad the crash had been. He flew to the scene in a police helicopter, he said. "People 100 miles away from here were doing everything for our kids to make sure they had everything they needed," he said.

In the grandstand normally filled by football fans, Karina Hernandez, 36, a practice manager for Catholic Health and a lifelong Farmingdale resident whose daughter, Mariah Espinal, is a junior tuba player in the band, said the street signs symbolized "resilience ... Time goes on, but you never forget."

Nearby, Claudia Koal, 77, a secretary at the school who helped load the schoolchildren onto the bus the day of the crash, said she’d sometimes watched Pellettiere work with her young musicians.

"The energy that she had — she’d tell them, ‘You have no idea how lucky you are to play in this organization.’ ”

The pep talk worked, Koal said. "They were happy and proud to have been part of what she was creating."