2025 Educator of the Year: Gary Karlson
Principal Gary Karlson may be only a few months into his tenure at Riley Avenue Elementary School, but his roots in the Riverhead Central School District run deep.
He lives in the district and his children attend school there. He has taught or been an administrator at each of its elementary schools, bringing along his long list of initiatives throughout his career. His commitment to the children of Riverhead has left a mark across each building.
Donna Verbeck, a classroom teacher at Roanoke Avenue Elementary, has known Mr. Karlson since his very first day, before he was even hired by the district.
“I met Mr. Karlson when he interviewed for the job at Phillips Avenue School. He did his demo lesson in my classroom,” said Ms. Verbeck.
They worked together for about 10 years teaching third grade as a team.
“He just said to me one day, ‘Do you want to do team teaching?’” Ms. Verbeck recalled. “He came up with the logistics and gave me the option of what subject area I wanted to teach. He taught my kids mathematics, and I taught his kids science and social studies.”
When Mr. Karlson decided to become an administrator, he applied at Aquebogue Elementary School and was hired by its principal, Bryan Miltenberg.
“Hiring Gary was one of the best decisions I ever made. He brought so much to our school in the time that he was here. He’s such a knowledgeable, passionate, dedicated educator. As a principal hiring an assistant principal, you expected to be the mentor, but in many ways, he was my mentor as well,” Mr. Miltenberg said. “We taught each other so much, but certainly, he taught me just a great deal about how to be a caring, dedicated leader.
“Any time something’s going on, I would be able to huddle with Gary and hear his perspective line. It always helped me to make a decision, and I always just learned a lot from hearing how he saw the world and whatever was happening in our school,” he added.
Mr. Miltenberg and Mr. Karlson started working together just a few months before the pandemic began. Mr. Miltenberg believes there was no better person to rely on during that time.
“He’s just such a great person to be in the trenches with, because he could talk to you and [you could] trust him. Working with someone like that just enables everyone around to renew their own passion. I think that’s just something a great leader does, is remind people what’s really important, and to bring humanity to every day,” said Mr. Miltenberg.
Mr. Karlson has begun many initiatives during his tenure with Riverhead’s school district, including the Veterans Appreciation Walk, where veterans and their children walk through the hallways while students sing and wave flags. Then there’s the Thanksgiving Day parade, where students learn about the history of the balloons. Another program is Let Grow, a free day when, instead of doing homework, kids and parents are encouraged to help their children try a new experience.
“He’s a man of ideas. He reads a lot, and he knows a lot, and he likes try new things. He’s innovative. He always came up with things to do more efficiently, he always believed in being more efficient and engaging the kids more, and he was always coming up with ideas,” said Ms. Verbeck.
Mr. Karlson also started interclass visitation, with teachers learning from teachers. The school would get substitutes and a cohort of teachers would teach a class together, observing each other throughout the day and learn how they’re teaching from each other.
“That led to rich conversations,” said Thomas Payton, principal of Roanoke Avenue Elementary School. “As administrators, we kind of stayed out of it, and let the teachers [be] because teachers learned best with each other. That’s something he brought with him over here that worked really well last year.”
One of the things Mr. Karlson brought to Aquebogue was a program called “Sib Shops,” a program to support the siblings of students with disabilities, something that is often overlooked as a need. Students get paired with a mentor staff member who can walk them through the complex emotions of having a sibling with a disability and also connect them with other kids in a similar situation.
“I think that’s really symbolic of how Gary approaches things. He can see challenges from an empathetic lens that I think most people just don’t have,” said Mr. Miltenberg.
Mr. Payton was in charge of Mr. Karlson when he was in the classroom and also supervised him as an intern when he was pursuing his administration degree. Mr. Karlson also served as his assistant principal in 2024 before moving over to Riley Avenue Elementary School. Due to the space limitations at Roanoke, Mr. Payton and Mr. Karlson shared an office.
“It just gave us each a perspective of what we were going to do, how we were going to do it … to help support our teachers and move our students forward,” said Mr. Payton. “He was such a go-getter, so committed to rooting for Roanoke and championing our students here and everything he did. The one thing I can tell you, being his principal when he was my assistant principal last year, as the year went on, I just knew he was ready to run his own building.”
Ms. Verbeck acknowledges that being an administrator is a great next step for Mr. Karlson, but she also appreciated their time together in the classroom.
“It was about all the kids on the grade level, and engaging the kids, sharing sessions, things like that,” said Ms. Verbeck. “I miss working with him. I’m glad he’s a principal. When he decided to be an administrator, I was like, ‘Wow, that’s a really perfect job for you,’ but also knew I would miss teaching with him.”
For his dedication to his schools, his staff members and his students, as well as for the efficiency, empathy and ingenuity with which he operates day in and day out, the Riverhead News-Review has chosen Gary Karlson as its 2025 Educator of the Year.
Previous Winners
2024: Dr. Patrick McKinney
2023: Shoreham-Wading River Central School District’s Special Education Department
2022: Rose Horton
2021: Dena Tishim and Laura Nitti
2020: Kimberly Benkert and Robert Brandi
2019: Sal Loverde
2018: Ed Meier
2017: Felicia Scocozza
2016: Melissa Haupt
2015: Robert Shilling
2014: Greg Wallace
2013: Keri Stromski
2012: Jeff Doroski
2011: Jim Schaefer
2010: Stacy Tuohy
2009: Laura Grable
2008: Vincent Nasta
2007: Marion Dorman
2006: Theresa Drozd
2005: Frank Rotenberg
2004: Kevin McAllister
2003: Leif Shay
2002: Bob Jester
2001: Jean Lapinski
2000: Pat Rose
1999: Pat Snyder
1998: Carol Masin
1997: L. Custer, J. Greenberger
1996: Terri Peters
1995: Jim Roth
1994: Tim Hubbard
1993: Dot Moran
1992: Dorothy Lipsky
1991: Willie Patterson
1990: Audrey Stupke
1989: Ray McKieghan
1988: Stanley Krouse
