Vito Rinaldo has taught at PNW BOCES for the past 32 years. He began in the Exploratory Occupational Education program, operated a Learning Lab program for all the courses in the main Tech Center, served as a consultant teacher to a variety of courses and taught Information Systems in the Readiness program. In September 1995 Vito, along with Ingrid Boffi and Liz Marques, helped launch the Communications Academy, which is located in Tech South. It is an interdisciplinary combination of Commercial Art, Television Production and Computer Graphics. Vito has been using computers in the classroom since 1983, when he wrote and received a grant to purchase Atari computers for the Learning Labs. He designed the original website for the Communications Academy using a Classroom Prodigy grant. Vito recently received a BOCES CHHOP Teacher Center grant to purchase software to develop more sophisticated web pages. Currently Vito is the coordinator of the Communications Academy and also serves as a consultant teacher in the program. In addition, he chairs the Technology Committee for the Career and Technical Education department.

Vito has also taken a leadership role in support of BOCES on a statewide level. He is currently the chairperson of the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) BOCES Statewide Committee and serves as a member of the NYSUT/BOCES District Superintendent Workgroup. In addition, he was recently appointed to the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) standing committee for Career and Technical Education, which works to garner support for CTE at the federal level of government.

He is looking forward to September 2005, when the staff and students, past and present, will be celebrating the 10 th Anniversary of the Communications Academy.