Christopher Pallozzi will serve as New Lebanon’s Athletic Coordinator and Business Teacher
At its meeting on July 8, the New Lebanon CSD Board of Education appointed Christopher Pallozzi the district’s new Athletic Coordinator. This new, part-time position was created after the Jr/Sr High School Assistant Principal/Athletic Coordinator position was eliminated due to budget constraints.
Mr. Pallozzi will serve a dual role with the district – this position is a .4 FTE (full time equivalent) Athletic Coordinator and .2 FTE Business teacher.
Originally hired in New Lebanon in 2017 as the district’s business teacher, this role is an partial departure from his previous position, adding new responsibilities for the district’s merged athletics programs with the Berlin Central School District.
Pallozzi says as a lifelong learner with more than 20 years in education, he always looks for new challenges and growth opportunities.
“My core values are to always work hard and learn from those around you. I always try to teach and communicate this to students. This is one of the main reasons I accepted this position, as I look forward to working with students and families within the community while continuing to teach business.”
This isn’t his first foray into athletics in the district during his tenure – he has worked with colleagues to acquire various goods and services for the district’s sports teams, as well as coaching youth soccer and lacrosse outside of school.
He views his role as more than just working to manage the district’s sports teams, however. Pallozzi says athletics is about more than just playing a sport.
“Two goals that are important to our athletic programing are student participation and overall healthy students. We are uniquely and positively positioned with the recent merger with Berlin Central School DIstrict athletic programs. This provides students greater opportunities to participate in sports currently offered as well as potentially new sport programs in the future. In addition, students’ physical and mental health are extremely important as we move into the unprecedented post pandemic era. Allowing students opportunities to participate in playing sports and providing a healthy environment is vital for students becoming more well rounded and finding further success.
My statement/quote is ‘Just Play.’ Some students will be new participants of a given sport while other students will be experienced life-long players of their favorite sport. All of these athletes share some common threads, which are sharing experiences through the pandemic, learning from one another, and working together for a common goal. These goals will help students grow in areas such as, improved academics, teamwork, leadership, time management and accountability.”
This year, the business class available to students is Career and Financial Management. The course is broken down into two sections – career paths and financial literacy – which give students the tools to research and understand career opportunities and comprehend financial literacy.
Students will learn issues that most employees confront in their daily lives and will learn how to make decisions related to these issues. Lifestyles, personalities, setting goals, researching careers, planning for life, finding jobs, employee perspectives, employer expectations, employee rights, being effective, consumer rights, money management, credit, legal matters, and taxation are some of the topics taught in this class.