Naugatuck High School is a safe place where there are countless people that are more than willing to help those in need. Many people have actually even developed their lives and teaching careers in order to benefit the ones who many need the extra assistance. One such leader is Ms. Dianne Vagnini.

Ms.Vagnini, an English tutor at Naugatuck High School, has served these last four years of her life to simply lend a helping hand and provide motivation that some students may be lacking. She is unbelieveable due to her giving constant devotion, always.

Ranging from trying her hardest at math, science, spanish and history on top of English, as well as partnering with Mr. John Carino to create a drama club that put on a play earlier in the spring, and going as far as being a personal therapist for some, she has given hope to many NHS kids, who dearly need a confidant and friend.

Ms. Vagnini never turns down a student in need of help. If a student is failing and assigned to Ms. Vagnini, she would figure out why the student was failing, whether it be lack of motivation, problems at home or struggling to understand the subject, Ms. Vagnini would try her hardest to fix the problem and guide the students to make positive decisions and come to a proper resolution.

If a student is lacking motivation, she will show them tough love and will proceed to give them the all of your friends are going to graduate and move on, except you if you don’t do your work speech, then find ways to make the work more exciting to give them motivation.

Having problems at home is enough to make any student not want to do any schoolwork, Ms. Vagnini has anticipated these problems and has made her room more accommodating to students to make them more comfortable. Vagnini will sit with students for periods, if need be, to make sure that student knows they can go to her or anyone else at the school to talk.

She will sit with students and let them go on rants about anything to help them clear their minds. If they forgot to print out a paper for class, she will proofread it then gladly print it out for them. If they forgot their money at home to pay for a ticket, she would give them her money so they wouldn’t miss out on that opportunity.

Sh has moved in  couches, pillows and placed  comfortable padding on her window sill as a seat; it is very easy to feel welcomed as soon as walking into her room.

Ms. Vagnini will not try to pretend to understand everything they are going through, but she will try to make them feel like they are not the only ones going through this. Afterwards, she will repeatedly check up on  students and always make sure they know she’s still there.

“[The most memorable part of NHS..] was definitely the play; getting to know all the students involved in theater because I’ve never done anything like that before. It was so much fun.”

After three years of working as the English tutor for Naugatuck High School, Naugatuck’s Board of Education has announced that they will be cutting her hours from full time to only 19 hours a week.

Ms. Vagnini has decided that she instead take the opportunity to move to Spain and living in the city of Madrid. Over the summer, Ms. Vagnini will be taking a class at the International TEFL Academy to get certified to teach English as a foreign language for a year.

Since she is going to Spain on a student visa, she will be taking classes on the Spanish language and culture.

When asked what happens after Spain, Ms. Vagnini responded that she doesn’t know yet; she doesn’t know if she’ll want to stay longer than expected and that she will just see where she is at that point in her life.

Ms. Vagnini originally got the job as a part-time temp and since she liked it so much she stayed and became full time. The job being close to home made the decision of staying easier.

Ms. Vagnini has a different job than all the other teachers, not only her requirements but who she worked with. Ms. Vagnini worked with every grade and some of her classes were mixed grades.

Even though her classroom size was never more than 10 students per period, students would meet a lot of different teachers who would visit. Whether it be Mr. Carino running in and announcing something funny he saw or Mr. Sides checking in with Ms. Vagnini on how his students were doing. It was always exciting in classroom N107.

“Never the same boring routine everyday, it’s always something new and always a challenge. I get to work with all different levels of students and I get to work with every class. I love it here,” says Vagnini.

Mr. John Carino, an English teacher at Naugatuck High School, has worked beside Ms. Vagnini for three years, worked closely together for two years and has co-advised the drama this year.

“Hard worker, really good person [who] really cares about her students. [I] noticed that over this past year while spending a lot of time with the theater kids she really took care of them. I don’t know how I could’ve done it without her.. She’ll definitely be hard to replace.”

Mr. Carino, who is a lot like Vagnini, in ways that flatter both parties, says that since they have so much in common he does believe they’ll stay in touch.

Saying good bye is never easy; and it becomes even harder when the person is as special as Ms. Vagnini. Therefore from the many students whose lives she has touched we will simply say Adios maestro!