CHAH has recently gotten a new assistant principal, Ms. Zaiter. We wanted to talk to her and get to know her. Now you can know too.
Q: Could you please state your name and your role here at CHAH?
A: Hi, I’m Pamela Zaiter. I’m the new assistant principal.
Q: What made you want to be an assistant principal?
A: So I’m really passionate about education and making sure that Black and Brown students have access to equal opportunities. When I graduated high school, there were maybe about a thousand people who graduated in my class and only about a hundred went to college. And that really impacted me and the rest of my career. And I just felt like I wanted to get as many Black and Latino students in college as possible. And then I became a teacher and after that I felt like I would have even more of an impact on that if I took a leadership role in a school.
Q: What made you want to come here to CHAH?
A: Oh, I love CHAH because of its location, the students. Also, Mr. Falciani’s leadership style appealed to me too because he’s really silly and understanding and that’s kind of how I try to be.
Q: What is your favorite thing about being an assistant principal?
A: Interacting with students every day, getting to be silly with students and joking all day.
Q: What’s your favorite thing about CHAH ?
A: I love how you’re very community oriented and you’re like there for the young ones. It’s actually really nice. Another thing I really like is, my mom didn’t speak English when I was in school and so my mom didn’t feel like she could come to the school. So I also really like interacting with everybody’s families, especially those who need me because they need someone who’s Spanish speaking. That’s really nice.
Q: What are some goals for the school that you would want to achieve?
A: I want to have more support for students, like socio-emotionally. And I want just to create a more understanding environment so that students can thrive and create a space where students can feel like they can be themselves.
Q: What are some changes that you would want to happen in CHAH?
A: I want to be able to give students what they need so that students get in trouble less. So I’m trying to reduce the amount of times people get in trouble.
Q:What are your interests outside of school?
A: My interests outside of school, I really like to travel. I like to eat a lot. I’m a big foodie and spending time with friends and family.
Q: What are some words of advice you’d give to someone wanting to be an assistant principal?
A: I would say always remember the reason that you got into education and remember why you loved teaching. And if you can’t still have the things that you got out of teaching, then you probably wouldn’t like being an assistant principal.
Q: If you didn’t become an assistant principal, what would you have done?
A: I actually wanted to be a lawyer, specifically in family court. I think no matter what, I knew I wanted to work with students, with children.
Q:What’s something you’d tell your past self?
A: Something I would tell my past self is that if you want it, you work for it. And anything that you want to achieve is achievable, no matter what the obstacles seem like at the time.
Q:What do you like to do on your break or just in your free time?
A: I like to go to the coffee shop down the street. I like coffee a lot. And there’s like, I feel so lucky to work here because the food around here is so good. So I’ll get Mexican food sometimes. The food around here is so good, so I’ll get Mexican food sometimes or Dominican food.
Q: Would you say you stay well organized and why or how?
A:Yeah, I have to be organized because I have a lot of things coming at my plate. One of the things I use is I try to write things down as soon as they happen. So even if it’s sometimes I text myself a reminder, sometimes I like to carry an iPad or a notebook with me, but I try to write things down and I have an end of day checklist every day.
Q: Would you say you have a good relationship with the students?
A: I would hope so. So I try no matter what and I also like that I’m really big on relationships with students. It’s the most important thing to me and if I didn’t then I wouldn’t like my job. I’m also really big on forgiving and forgetting because you guys are so young and sometimes we lose control of our emotions. So I don’t really take things personally. You know we can start again the next day no matter what.
Q: And what’s an interesting fact you’d like to tell us about yourself?
A: So an interesting fact about me is that I always went to school here in New York City. I’m a DOE kid, but when I was 10 my family moved back to the Dominican Republic and I actually did middle school in DR. Another fun fact is that I was an ENL student and I learned English in school.
Nicole • Feb 13, 2026 at 6:58 am
Great questions. You were able to have her give more detailed responses.
tito • Jan 28, 2026 at 11:19 am
Excellent is a very good text you responded the right things
Falciani • Dec 1, 2025 at 10:18 am
Excellent Q&A. I like the detailed questions and focus on getting to know a new staff member. Well done.