Born in Brooklyn, NY, to parents Bill and Carol McCartin, Caroline is the oldest of six children.  Her family moved to Riverhead when she was four years old. She attended Riverhead schools and graduated in 1982. That summer, she met her husband Tony, but it would be seven years before they married; as Tony needed to complete his schooling and she was headed off to college.

Caroline attended SUNY New Paltz over the next four years and graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology/elementary education. She then returned to Long Island and worked as a substitute teacher for the next year, primarily in Eastport.

In September of 1987, she got her first full-time position and taught second grade for the next two years at St. John of God in Central Islip. In 1989, she switched to kindergarten and continued there until 1991. She stopped teaching at that time to stay home to raise her three sons, Michael, Nicholas, and Matthew, while also pursuing her Master’s degree.

Caroline completed her Master’s in literacy and graduated from Dowling College in December of 2001.  After graduation, she restarted her teaching career. In 2002, she secured a yearlong leave replacement as a literacy specialist in the Three Village School District.

In 2003, Caroline started her career in the William Floyd School District. She began as a permanent substitute at William Floyd Elementary School. That year was also the first year the district was implementing its full-day kindergarten program, and an additional class was needed. Shortly after that, she was selected as the teacher for that additional class and transitioned into a full-time kindergarten teaching position.

For 23 years, Caroline taught kindergarten and loved every second of it. Nothing brought her more satisfaction and happiness than watching her students go from learning letters and sounds in September to reading and writing in June.

Each year while her students grew, Caroline grew right beside them. She has held various roles over the course of her career. She taught a course on brain-based research through the William Floyd Teacher Center, served as an English Language Arts ambassador designing professional development to support her colleagues, and served as William Floyd Elementary School’s building vice president for the teachers’ union for 10 years. In 2019, she earned her administrative degree from Stony Brook University as well. Finally, her most recent role was with her building’s school data team.

Through all of this, the main driver for Caroline has always been, and will always be, the relationships she developed with her students, their families, and her colleagues and friends in the school community. She has been extremely fortunate and is grateful for the opportunity to teach where she did for as long as she wanted. Receiving this award is the pinnacle of her career and she is incredibly thankful to have a moment like this. She would like to thank the William Floyd Alumni Association and her students and families for this honor.