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Mary Beth Amato loves a good story. 

A middle school math and science teacher at Holy Spirit School in East Greenbush, she’s no stranger to captivating her audience of kids. She tells her students Alfred Hitchcock stories (the innocent versions), and tales of her daughter’s cats, Linus, Lucy and Peppermint Patty. But her most popular story by far is the snowstorm. 

In April 1982 — during Amato’s first year as a teacher at Holy Spirit — an unseasonable snowstorm blew through New York. Over 20 inches of snow fell across parts of upstate, and in Wynantskill, it left 23 Holy Spirit students stuck at school with no way home. Amato and first-grade teacher, Virginia Hyson, were dumbfounded; they were the only faculty left at the school with nowhere to go.

But Amato sprung into action. She called all the parents to tell them their kids were safe, then started calling the local neighbors for blankets. Families came by with cots and pillows and blankets for the kids. Amato grabbed a sleigh and marched to the local corner store to buy food. Students filled up on hamburgers and hot dogs with applesauce for dessert. They pulled out a TV and watched “Happy Days” and “Joanie Loves Chachi.” 

“And we stayed the night,” Amato said. “The girls slept upstairs with me and at 9 or 10 p.m., the buses came to get the kids, and I said, ‘No you’re not.’ It’s freezing — some of those kids have been asleep for a while — and I said they’re safe and their parents know where they are, and we stayed the night.”

Over 40 years later and that story still gets her students excited. It’s all part of her immense love for her work — a love that hasn’t gone unnoticed by her friends and colleagues. This year, Amato was awarded the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Distinguished Secondary School Teacher Award as part of the Albany Diocese’s Catholic Schools Week, and was honored at the Catholic Schools Week Mass on Jan. 27 at St. Mary’s Church in Ballston Spa. 

Holy Spirit interim principal, Patricia Balmer, broke the news after a faculty meeting and presented Amato with flowers. “I was in shock most of the evening,” Amato said. “I was like this is my job, this is what I love doing. I love what I do and I love teaching and I want children to love learning, and that’s what I’ve done for 41 years.”

A product of Catholic schools herself, Amato grew up in the area attending St. Jude the Apostle School in Wynantskill and Catholic Central High School in Lansingburgh. Even as a kid she knew she wanted to be a teacher and spent her days “teaching” her stuffed animals at home. At one point she considered becoming a lawyer, but her math skills were too good to ignore.

Amato obtained her associate’s degree in math and science from Hudson Valley Community College and a bachelor’s degree in math and secondary education from The College of Saint Rose.

Since 1981, Amato has taught across a variety of Catholic schools, including Holy Spirit School, Catholic Central High School and St. Pius X School in Loudonville. Outside of the traditional classroom, Amato worked at Rensselaer County Unified Services and taught night school for Empire State College. She worked for Educational Vistas (EVI) in Schenectady, a company that helps score and create New York State educational exams. For 10 years, Amato scored tests, created exams and offered professional development to teachers in the state from Harlem to Buffalo.

In Feb. 2019, Amato stopped working to have cataract surgery. After months of healing, Amato came across an ad in the paper saying Holy Spirit School needed a math teacher. She turned to her husband and said, “It’s time to go home.”

Four years later, Amato is happy as ever to be back, adding that she “sees miracles every day” while working with her students. Students will ask her to pray to the saints whenever they have a big exam (and she always does) because they know she’s always there to help.

“I hope that (when my students graduate) that they have learned about math and science, they feel comfortable doing math and science, and that they’ve learned to be better people,” she said. “That they will be kind, and they will give of themselves and they will work hard, and they will know that rewards come for people who work hard. And even if it doesn’t come in money or on a plaque, you will be rewarded in your heart.”

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