Sachem alum, school leader, will receive award at ceremony in February
Dr. Dennis O’Hara, a graduate of Sachem and the Superintendent of Hauppauge Publics Schools, has been named as a winner of the Dr. Effie H. Jones Humanitarian Award, an honor given by the AASA, The School Superintendents Association.
Dr. O’Hara will be presented with the honor at AASA’s National Conference on Education, February 15 at the Music City Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn.
Among his successes: he launched an interdepartmental program, in collaboration with the counseling and athletic departments, aimed at improving the academic performance of student-athletes. As the principal of Oyster Bay High School, he created a College Awareness program igniting a college-going culture and, through creative fundraising, ensured that all students could participate in college visits. Graduation and college-going rates during this time increased among all subgroups, and the school was ranked among the top 2 percent of all high schools in the country by U.S. News and World Report, Newsweek magazine, and the Washington Post.
This award recognizes leaders who exemplify the qualities modeled by the late Effie Hall Jones, an educator and former AASA associate executive director.