Otoshi leaves lasting impact on music

After working at Lynbrook for a decade, peer tutorial clerical assistant Miko Otoshi announced her retirement from Lynbrook during the Pops Concert on May 17, deciding that she wanted to spend more time with her family. A master of the band room and homework center, Otoshi continuously found ways to give back to the community.

“It’s nice to be in an environment where there’s a lot of youthful energy, and I feel productive helping teachers,” Otoshi said.

As a mother with three children who all attended Lynbrook, Otoshi found herself involved in the greater Lynbrook community starting with her joining Lynbrook PTSA. After working behind the scenes to attain grants for Lynbrook’s various programs and helping out as a parent volunteer through Lynbrook Instrumental Music Boosters, Otoshi joined the music department at Lynbrook as an administrative assistant for band teacher Michael Pakaluk.

“She’s very warm and earnest about her responsibilities, making sure everything is organized,” Pakaluk said. “She’s really amazing and stands out, dedicating her time, energy and resources, and it’s kind of rare to see that in parent volunteers.”

Her role in the music department included managing the instrument rental system, coordinating domestic and international tours and copying sheet music among other responsibilities. Students greatly appreciated the continuous effort she put in to provide a smooth and positive classroom experience.

From there, Otoshi dabbled with other ways to help students, eventually becoming a coordinator for the Student Tutors and Tutees Achieving Results program. She connected interested tutors with tutees, who then met during brunch, lunch or after school for supplemental instruction.

“Ms. Otoshi is dependable in everything she does for STTAR tutoring, homework center, and National Honors Society,” said senior and NHS internal vice president Vivian Zhao. “Without her, we wouldn’t have been so successful with maintaining and improving our school’s peer tutoring programs.”

Whether it was during her time as a parent volunteer or as a clerical staff member, Otoshi found seeing students progress over their high school journey extremely rewarding.

“It’s always nice to see students who got matched with a STTAR tutor become a tutor themselves in their junior or senior year and say that they enjoyed doing it,” Otoshi said.

As Otoshi retires, she hopes to spend more time with her family and pick up old hobbies like golfing and skiing. She also plans to continue being involved at school, by volunteering for the instrumental music department.