2025 Educator of the Year: James Stahl
For more than three decades, James Stahl has been a mainstay in the Southold Union Free School District. To colleagues, he’s been inspirational. To students, he’s been a mentor.
Within the walls of his English class, Mr. Stahl works tirelessly to make sure his students grow and learn as best they can. He even monitors classroom debates for which he’ll intentionally put students on the side of an argument they might personally not align with. Through this, he teaches them the value of having opinions and having them respectfully shared and defended, but also the importance of understanding both sides.
“He is just universally known to be not only a fantastic teacher, but a phenomenal person,” said Southold High School principal Terence Rusch. “He’s kind-hearted, he’s funny, he’s engaging. If I could model new teachers, they would be modeled after Jim Stahl.”
Outside the classroom, Mr. Stahl also co-advises the school’s SOHO TV broadcast course. Through that, students learn about scripts, public speaking, video editing, news package editing and more. He was also instrumental in launching The Sentinel, the school’s student newspaper, and is the adviser for the National Honor Society.
There are four pillars of that society: scholarship, service, leadership and character. Mr. Rusch said Mr. Stahl exemplifies those pillars himself.
Southold senior Elizabeth Estrada has felt Mr. Stahl’s positivity through various mediums. She’s worked alongside him as editor of The Sentinel and as National Honor Society president. She has also taken AP Language and Composition with him, and is currently in AP Literature — which she chose so she can be in his class again.
Elizabeth said that, thanks to Mr. Stahl, students can really accomplish anything they want.
“He does a really great job at pushing everybody to their own potential,” she said. “Mr. Stahl is a fantastic teacher, a really nice person. We all love Mr. Stahl.”
Jason Wesnofske, a tech teacher at the school, runs SOHO TV with Mr. Stahl. For the last 12 years, they’ve been doing something else, too: gleaning. Each year, Mr. Stahl brings National Honor Society students to Mr. Wesnofske’s family farm, Wesnofske Farms in Peconic, where they gather produce left over after harvest and donate it to the food pantry operated by the Center for Advocacy, Support and Transformation, or CAST.
“He actually has built, in the last 12 years of running the National Honor Society, connections in the community, bringing our students outside of the walls of Southold into our community,” Mr. Wesnofske said. “I think people in the community connect with him. I think he’s a pillar of Southold.”
Mr. Wesnofske said when he thinks about all Mr. Stahl has done, he thinks of the 1946 film “It’s a Wonderful Life” and George Bailey, who was portrayed by James Stewart. He wonders what Southold would be without him, feeling it’s a better place now than when he started.
“He’s active, engaging and captivating to the kids. He draws them in, and the kids want to do well for him,” said Mr. Wesnofske. “He is so giving, he’s so generous, he’s so positive. I cannot stress that enough.”
For his 31 years of mentoring students, encouraging them to be all they can be and striving to make the community a better place for everyone, James Stahl is The Suffolk Times’ 2025 Educator of the Year.
Previous Winners
2024: Gary Buckner
2023: Rebecca Szymanski
2022: Cindy Goldsmith-Agosta
2021: Melanie Douglass
2020: Dennis Deerkoski
2019: Christine Schade
2018: Rosemary McGoey
2017: Sarah Benjamin
2016: Emily Gundersen
2015: John Roslak
2014: Phillip ‘Skip’ Munisteri
2013: Al Edwards
2012: Daniel Goldfarb
2011: Major William Grigonis
2010: Jean Dempsey
2009: Robert Feger
2008: Charles Kozora
2007: Kathy Williams
2006: Dr. Stuart Rachlin
2005: Mattituck Fund for Students
2004: Ron McEvoy
2003: Chris Gallagher
2002: Brigitte Gibbons
2001: Barbara Ackerman
2000: Ruth Yoskovich
1999: Tom Brennan
1998: Peggy Dickerson
1997: Elizabeth Goldsmith
1996: Lee Ellwood
1995: Linda Gates
1994: Poppy Johnson
1993: Peggy Murphy
1992: Patricia Wall
1991: Charles Nephew
1990: Dennis Claire
1989: Bruno Brauner
1988: Winifred Billard
1987: Jim Christy
