Text and photos by Peter Vankevich
Here are some introductions to the Ocracoke School’s new additions to the teaching staff.
Angela Galloway
Angela Galloway is the new first-grade teacher. She brings a wealth of experience of 14 years in public, private, Montessori and homeschool education. Her bachelor’s degree in elementary education is from Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer, Stanly County, and she was most recently a teacher in Rowan County.
She first knew she wanted to become an elementary school teacher because her first-grade teacher inspired her by loving her students and making learning fun. “I loved her so much that I wanted to become like her.
“Working at Ocracoke school is so special to me. I discovered Ocracoke 30 years ago when my husband, on a whim, brought me here for Valentine’s Day. I remember it was freezing cold, but I fell in love with the island and vowed someday I would live and work here,” she said.
This dream came true.
Last fall, she attended an NCAAT conference on Technology Infused Math and had a chance to tour the new school and met Principal Jeanie Owens, to whom she expressed her interest in teaching. At the time, it didn’t seem to work out, but during the summer, she received an email from Owens saying that there was an opening and would she be interested in teaching first grade? With elation, she quickly accepted the position.
In 2022, while teaching at Yadkin Path Montessori School, she was among five teachers named Educators of the Year by Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina.
Galloway is enjoying the small class size–only 11 students, since she’s used to much larger classes. Her interests outside of the classroom include painting and photography, and she finds the sunsets on Ocracoke especially beautiful.
Beth Smith
Beth Smith is the new Pre-K teacher with a class of 10 students. She has an extensive background in education, having taught kindergarten through fourth grade for 20 years in the Dudley community in Wayne County. Smith grew up in Wilmington and earned her bachelor’s degree from Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina.
After two decades in education, she sought a career change. She enrolled in the Master of Library Science program at East Carolina University. Following her studies, she worked as a children’s librarian for five years and retired in 2020.
This summer, Smith considered returning to teaching and applied to the school. “My husband and I visited Ocracoke several times and loved it,” she said. “It was our dream to live here someday.” One of her hobbies, shell collecting, aligns well with the island’s environment.
Mary-Jo Gellenbeck
A graduate of Villanova University in Philadelphia with a bachelor’s degree in communication arts, Gellenbeck is the new Exceptional Children (EC) teacher, working with students from Pre-K to 11th grade.
Her previous six years in education were in jobs within the Department of Public Instruction.
“I worked at facilities that served public education,” she said, having worked as an environmental educator at the Hawaii Nature Center, designing programs for students who were studying earth science.
More recently she was the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program coordinator for Raleigh, which develops, manages and implements programs that encourage children to walk and bike to school by creating safer routes and educational initiatives.
She explained how she is now teaching at the school.
“One of my pastimes is to look at real estate using Zillow,” she said. While on vacation here, she searched for Ocracoke. “If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, there’s a school scorecard that identifies the schools that are associated with the address. Ocracoke scores are exceptionally high, eight out of 10 compared to the schools that are in Wake County and that really piqued my curiosity.”
It was the same month that Katie Kinion, the former Ocracoke student attending Harvard University, was on the front page of the Ocracoke Observer. That combination led her to apply for a teaching position.
Gellenbeck is looking forward to working within the community once she settles in on her teaching responsibilities.
Rey Yackovetsky
As the new fifth-grade teacher, she has a class of nine students. She is a recent graduate of the University of Hartford with a Bachelor of Science degree in early childhood education and a minor in dance. This is her first official teaching assignment, but she had two years of student teaching while obtaining her degree.
“I was homeschooled until the seventh grade and have always seen myself teaching younger people and I love sharing the joy of learning,” she said. Her goal is to have her students like school. “Some students who are behind feel they are not smart and cannot learn. I want to change their attitudes.”
Explaining how she ended up on Ocracoke, she said, “After graduating this spring, I had a hard time finding a teacher position. A lot of people are having a hard time getting jobs in Connecticut in pretty much every field.
“I was here on vacation in July with my family, and my dad kind of jokingly said, ‘Oh, you should see if this school is hiring.’ And so, I did, and then they were hiring and I applied. And the next day, Miss Jeanie called me to see if I wanted to come in for an interview. She offered me the job right after that for the fifth-grade teacher. So, I went on vacation and ended up with a job.”
She shared one positive first impression: “I think this school has a lot of amazing resources that I have not seen at a lot of schools I did my student teaching at.”
Emilie Mason
Emilie Mason is the new Spanish teacher, K through 12, a new position for the school. She is collaborating with Flavia Burton, the ESL teacher who will retire at the end of the school year and then she will take on those responsibilities.
Mason’s bachelor’s degree in Spanish is from Peace College which is now William Peace University in Raleigh. She spent her junior year studying abroad in Grenada, Spain.
“I taught Spanish and ESL at Hatteras Elementary School for two years in my early 20s before I moved to Ocracoke,” she said. She then worked as a Pre-K assistant with Alice Burruss for three years; then was the Pre-K teacher for two years. After that, she took a long hiatus, and many people will recognize her from working at the Variety Store.
“Because this is a new program, I am treating all classes as beginner Spanish,” she said.
Mason finds the challenge of teaching Spanish interesting because the classes have some native Spanish speakers.
Rather than being bored, she encourages them to help their fellow students learn their language and is pleased how they are helping. She noted that one of the reasons students want to learn Spanish is to communicate with family members of their friends who do not speak much English.
Mason has teamed up with Maddie Payne coaching the young students’ Cheer Club that can be seen at the Ocracoke Dolphins basketball games.
Joan O’Neal
Many people would consider that Joan (Joanie) O’Neal, the new business Career and Technical Education (CTE) teacher, has had an amazing life.
She grew up in Ocracoke, graduating in 1990. After obtaining her English/secondary education degree from UNC-Wilmington, she moved to Alaska to work as a school administrator and teach CTE and business classes in remote communities with populations ranging from less than 100 to about 5,000.
One school, Barrow High School in Utqiaġvik, formerly known as Barrow, is the most northern school district in the United States.
In 2009, she wrote a story for the Ocracoke Observer on how and why she went from Ocracoke to Alaska to teach. It included this gem: “I have never lived in an igloo. Ironically, the only igloo I ever went in was in Kenny Ballance’s front yard in the 1980s during that big blizzard that hit Ocracoke.”
While in Alaska, O’Neal obtained a master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Alaska-Anchorage and is working on a doctorate in educational leadership at Liberty University, Lynchburg, Virginia.
In addition to the classes, Entrepreneurship I and Intro to Business and Entrepreneurship for grades six through 12, she has set up and serves as the advisor to two student clubs: the Future Business Leaders of America and the Sports and Marketing Club. Both focus on developing leadership, business and career skills.
