Teacher Profile: Buni Kovacs

By Andrew Rote

There are new faces among the teaching staff this year at Newtown High School, but Buni Kovacs is one that many people will recognize.

After seven years of teaching science to seventh graders at the middle school and one year of working with sixth graders with special needs, Mrs Kovacs decided it was time for a new challenge. She did not move too far, however.

“I get the best of both worlds,” Mrs Kovacs said. She feels that her new job is a good opportunity because she gets to teach science and work in special education.

Mrs Kovacs earned her Bachelors Degree from Pace University and her Masters at Fairfield University. Her certificate in special education is from Southern Connecticut State University.

Mrs Kovacs began her teaching career at Broadway Junior High School in Danbury. She then left to begin her new job as a parent and did not return to teaching until her youngest of three children turned 18. She then came to Newtown.

“I walk through the door and I know half of the kids,” Mrs Kovacs said about her new role. Many of the kids she teaches or sees in the hallways were once her students in middle school.

She said that the first thing she noticed about NHS was how tired the students are in the morning. “First period’s real tough on everybody.”

Another difference between the middle school and high school that Mrs Kovacs noted was how curious the freshmen is and how they act with their newfound freedom.

While the two schools are different, Mrs Kovacs pointed out that the goal is the same.

“It’s still the idea of trying to get a student enthusiastic about learning,” she said.

Mrs Kovacs said she will be able to apply her experiences from the middle school to her new job. The only difference she sees in the lessons is the difficulty level.

Teaching has always been Mrs Kovacs’ main interest. She went to college, learning to be a researcher of genetics. When she found out how much isolation that involved, she turned to her minor which was education.

After student teaching at White Plains High School, she knew that teaching was what she wanted to do.

Mrs Kovacs plans to stay in NHS until she retires. And retiring is not something that is in her plans for a long time.