Staff Bios

Administration

Principal Mr. Remeika

Steve Remeika is an administrator, actor, writer, educator, and native New Yorker, born and raised in Queens. He is a proud graduate of New York City's Public Schools. Prior to becoming the principal at Explorations Academy, he was a staff member at John Bowne High School in Flushing, Queens since 2005. At Bowne, he worked as an English and acting teacher before becoming the Assistant Principal of Supervision in 2013. He held this position for a full decade before becoming the Principal of Explorations Academy.

Principal Remeika holds a B.A. from Binghamton University in English and Theater, an M.A. from Columbia University in English Literature and the Teaching of English, as well as an Advanced Certificate in Educational Leadership from The College of Saint Rose.

As an actor, he has trained within the M.F.A. acting program at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, the professional conservatory at Atlantic Theater Company, and with the American Conservatory Theater.

His work in film and television has been nominated and featured at the Tribeca Film Festival, the Australian International Film Festival, the Puerto Rican Film Festival, the Staten Island Film Festival, and Cinequest.

In 2013, he founded a specialized Ed-Opt. program, the Academy for Creative Artists, to inspire and train future actors and writers to make exceptional contributions to the arts.

Mr. Remeika brings his love of theater to Expo via the newly implemented Expo Conservatory Theater (E.C.T.), a new specialized program for theater and actor training, which provides additional course offerings to the students at Explorations Academy in addition to the renowned Computer Science and Technology program.

He believes that all students can learn and achieve at high levels and is thrilled to be stewarding the team at Explorations Academy to soar to heights unimaginable.

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Assistant Principal Ms. Ware

Assistant Principal Mr. Garcia

Main Office

Guidance Department

Parent Coordinator

Dean / School Aides

Math Department

English Department

Social Studies Department

Mr. Eck

M.S., Secondary Education, Wagner College,

B.A., History, College of Staten Island

Mr. Eck joined the Explorations Academy High School Team in 2008. Prior to joining Explorations Academy, Mr. Eck was Department Chairperson of Social Studies for South Plantation High School, located in Plantation, Florida. While working at South Plantation high School, Mr. Eck focused on teaching the History and Mechanics of the United Nations. Upon returning to New York in 2008, Mr. Eck began to teach at Explorations Academy. Mr. Eck has taught Global History, US History, Government, and Introduction to Law at Expo. Mr. Eck’s philosophy is that all students can offer knowledge during instruction. Most lessons are focused on student generated questions. This leads to a class where all students feel welcome, needed, and appreciated. He maintains an atmosphere of order and mutual respect in his classroom by communicating expectations directly and clearly from the outset of the school year. As a graduate of a New York City high school, Mr. Eck is proud to be teaching in the school system he is a graduate of and his motto through-out his career has always been SASSI which is an acronym for Students Achieving Social Studies Instruction.

Ms. Jimenez

I love my subject and teaching on the high school level. I feel like that we can connect everything happening in the present to things that have happened in the past. I hope to spread my love for history to my students.

Science Department

Ms. Adams

As an Educator I find great joy in being part of the community and I involve myself in each of the Spirit themed days that we have. I have been teacher Science for greater than 10 years! This is my career and my passion. I have taught 6th grade to 12th AP Biology. When students get the Ah-Ha moments it brings me great joy!

Best, Keva Adams

Ms. Rios

Mr. Barreto

Mr. Barreto is a proud City University of New York graduate. When I arrived from Colombia, I did not know English and was very fortunate to start my college education at Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College, where they allowed me to earn college credit in Spanish, while learning English. I loved the English language and took every English course Hostos had to offer. After earning my A.A.S. from Hostos, I enrolled at City College of New York, where I earned a BS and MS in Biology. I had the honor of being mentored by Dr. Rochelle Buffenstein, Ph.D., who encouraged me to apply to the CUNY Ph.D. program, where I was accepted into the Ethology Ph.D. degree. While doing graduate work I met, Principal Susana Hernandez, who encouraged me to come to her school because of the needed for male, Hispanic, bilingual science teachers as role models in her school: Explorations Academy High School. I took a hiatus from my doctorate work and planned to teach in a public school for one year. Well, that was 12 years ago, I am still a proud teacher at Explorations Academy HS.

Special Education Department

Foreign Language

Ms.Sierra

I was a teacher in Dominican Republic for 25 years. My experience was in Elementary School with 1 and 4 grades, and in Middle School with 7 and 8 grades.
I arrived in New York on June 6, 2008. I started to learn english in the GED program and in 2011 I went to the CUNY Language Immersion Program (CLIP) . I did not know what to do. Well, I went back to school to continue teaching. I love kids and education is my passion. I finished college in December 2016. But, it was in May 2017 when I graduated with Honor from City College of New York. I started working by creating a Spanish GED program to help students who stopped the school to obtain an equivalent to High School Degree. This is my fourth year working in High School as a Spanish teacher.
During my CLIP program experience, a teacher asked me to write a personal story. I wrote “A Time I was Frightened”. This story was selected and published for NYU and NYU GALLATIN school of individualized study: The Literacy Review, volume nine 2011

I describe myself as an enterprising woman who does not surrender before adversity.

ELL (English Language Learners) Department

Physical Education

Mr.Allison

Mr. Allison has worked as a physical education and health teacher at Explorations Academy since 2008. He has been the Athletic Director for the campus since 2013. He believes all students should have the opportunity to have a quality physical education program in which students can learn life skills and fitness knowledge that can be utilized for the rest of their lives. Mr. Allison has also coached for the PSAL in various sports: Girls Varsity Volleyball, Boys Varsity Basketball, and Boys Varsity Baseball.

Arts

Paraprofessionals