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Bryan Bookamer did not even make it to Remsenburg on the evening of September 14 when he got a call from Westhampton Beach High School Principal Chris Herr informing him that he was going to be hired as the school’s new assistant principal.
Just minutes before, Mr. Bookamer, 29, was interviewed by the Westhampton Beach School Board in the high school library for the recently opened position. The interview took about 30 minutes and before he left to join his wife, Kelly, at an ice cream social at nearby Remsenburg/Speonk Elementary School where she works as a teacher, Westhampton Beach board members told him, “We’ll be in touch.”
About five minutes after leaving the high school, Mr. Herr called to tell Mr. Bookamer, a business teacher at Westhampton Beach, that the board wanted to hire him as assistant principal. The alumnus of Westhampton Beach High School said he immediately turned his car around and, later that night, was appointed to his new post during the School Board meeting. His first day was Monday, September 21.
“I was pleasantly surprised,” Mr. Bookamer said during a recent interview.
There were 25 candidates for the assistant principal position that was left vacant with the departure of Ed Ryder on September 4, according to Westhampton Beach Schools Superintendent Lynn Schwartz. But Mr. Bookamer stood out among the field of candidates.
“He was a strong candidate and we wanted to get him on board as soon as possible,” Mr. Schwartz said.
Clint Greenbaum, a School Board member with a daughter enrolled in the high school, agreed. He said Mr. Bookamer’s background in Westhampton Beach made him the ideal candidate.
“The nice thing about him is that we’ve had him in the system,” Mr. Greenbaum said. “We knew exactly what we were getting. That made it very easy.”
Mr. Bookamer knows Westhampton Beach very well. He attended Remsenburg/Speonk Elementary School and both Westhampton Beach middle and high schools, graduating in 1998. He started student teaching in the district in fall 2002 and when Bill Matros, a math teacher, retired, Mr. Bookamer was hired to finish the 2002-03 school year. He was later tenured as a teacher, though will have to seek tenure again in his new administrative position.
Westhampton Beach always looks for the best candidate for every open position, Mr. Schwartz said. The school is a popular district, he added, and many of those who graduated from the district, like Mr. Bookamer, like to return home and teach in Westhampton Beach.
“They like to come back to a lovely community,” the superintendent said.
Mr. Bookamer, who will earn $105,000 a year in his new position, said that is exactly why he wanted to work at his old school.
“The community itself is very inviting,” he said. “There are a lot of positives that come out of this district.“
While Mr. Bookamer was a student in Westhampton Beach, he played football and ran on the track team. He was also a peer mediator for four years.
Stephen Wisnoski, a social studies teacher at Westhampton Beach, is not surprised that his former student returned to his old stomping grounds.
“He’s a top-flight individual, without a doubt,” Mr. Wisnoski said, adding that he had Mr. Bookamer as a student in both the classroom and on the football field. Mr. Wisnoski, a former varsity football coach, said Mr. Bookamer made the varsity football team as a sophomore, which was not an easy feat. He also remembered the young administrator as being as a well-read and hardworking student.
Mr. Wisnoski said he lobbied the School Board and urged members to offer Mr. Bookamer the assistant principal position at the high school.
“He knows the place, he knows the culture, he knows the community,” Mr. Wisnoski said. “I think he’s going to do great.”
After graduating with a degree in finance in May 2002 from James Madison University in Virginia, Mr. Bookamer enrolled at Dowling College to get his teacher’s certification in business education. That fall, he started student teaching at Westhampton Beach.
Mr. Bookamer then earned his master’s degree in liberal science at Stony Brook University and later his administrative certificate, a post-graduate level certificate, through Stony Book while he was teaching at Westhampton Beach High School.
Mr. Bookamer has taught web design, business law and other business classes at the high school, and coached the varsity football and varsity golf teams. He and his wife, who have a 4-year-old son, Charlie, and another son due at the end of the month, live in Westhampton.
After securing his new job, Mr. Bookamer said he spent the next week gearing up for his position and the responsibilities that come with it. He left the classroom and his coaching duties on Monday, September 21.
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