Many people know Norma Bushman, the new district clerk for the Wainscott School, from her 15 years at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter, where she was most recently as the aquatics director.
In her new role, Ms. Bushman has big shoes to fill. Her predecessor, Mary McCaffrey, who died in November, had been the school secretary and district clerk for 19 years. And then there are the challenges of beginning a job in a school in the midst of a pandemic, with all the increased attention to health and safety.
But Ms. Bushman is not fazed by either. "It's a scary time all around but it didn't scare me to come here. I was up for the challenge and wanted to help the district," she said earlier this month. "I'm so blessed to have found Wainscott School and feel that it's a wonderful place to be and I'm excited to be working with the teachers and superintendent. I love to be of service and this is a great way to utilize my communication skills. I know a lot of families from teaching swimming, too."
Originally from Lido Beach, Ms. Bushman came to East Hampton in 1980. "I attended the high school for two years out here and went to the University of Arizona to study radio, TV, marketing, and communications, believe it or not!" she said. After working for a couple of newspapers in Tucson, Ms. Bushman returned to New York and worked as a part-time teacher at the Neighborhood House in East Hampton when her kids were little.
Next, she took over a Wainscott shop called Hearts and Handcrafts as the store owner from 1990 to 1996. "It was a great little crafts store and then, with my children, I really wound up just doing something that would be part time. I started as a swim instructor." That led to her long tenure at the RECenter. Now, with her youngest daughter at East Hampton High School and another daughter having recently graduated from McDaniel College, and her son running a landscaping business, she was ready for a new chapter.
Some of her favorite jobs, like her time at Camp Carol and the Y.M.C.A. began as something she "wound up doing part time" in tandem with her children's interests at the time. "It just evolved into being something I felt passionate about. And to teach kids how to swim; I just had a calling. I'm a swim mom, a Wainscott mom, and I was a Y mom for a long time. The Y will always hold a place in my heart."
Teaching, too, has a place in her heart. "I have four sisters and a brother and we are all somehow related to the arts and use a talent that we have." Ms. Bushman's talent is swimming, one sister teaches singing, and the others, piano, pottery, and art, and her brother is a chef.
In her new job, she is managing student registration, for the Wainscott district and the other districts that Wainscott's students attend. She is also working with the superintendent, the school board, and the teachers to help everything in the district "function as smoothly as possible."
There are many voices to listen to in planning for a safe school year, for instance. "It's interesting because we're learning all the guidelines we have to follow, from the state and district and board of health, so we're all collaborating on what is the best method for learning and socially distancing."
Wainscott, she said, is looking to expand its physical learning spaces, so its old one-room schoolhouse is getting prepped and ready to accommodate students if need be. "A lot of good things are happening," she said.