THIS MONTH'S FEATURED HISTORY PROJECT
INTERVIEW:
Estelle Hoyt
Social Worker
February 12, 1999
     Estelle Hoyt is a retired bilingual social worker who worked predominantly with the Hispanic students in the Brentwood School District. She was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the youngest of three girls. Her mother died when she was an infant. Estelle and her middle sister were sent to live with a maternal aunt in Jamaica while her older sister went to live with an aunt in the lower East side of Manhattan. She attended PS 170 elementary school and Jamaica High School.
    She is divorced and has three grown sons and two grandchildren. Her oldest son, Andy is a professor of molecular biology at Johns Hopkins. Her middle son, Lon is an actor, entertainer and musical director. He has two children, a daughter, Lisbeth age 11 and a son, Loren age 8. Her youngest son, Jamie, who graduated from Harvard University, is a television producer.
    Estelle attended Queens College majoring in Spanish and French studying to be a Spanish teacher, however when she heard that they needed Spanish-speaking social workers in the city, she decided to change her career. She then worked for 7 years as a social worker in the city. After her oldest son was born, she and her husband bought a house and moved to Seaford where she did some home teaching and substitute teaching in Spanish. She then got a part time job as a nursery school teacher when her youngest son was in Kindergarten. A friend of hers who was the head of the social workers in Pilgrim State Hospital told her that she was looking to hire a retired social worker, so she accepted the position. In 1969, while working at Pilgrim State Hospital, she read an article written by the sisters of St. Joseph in a local newspaper stating that there was a need for Spanish-speaking social workers in the Brentwood School district. This was the perfect job for her. She said it was the three s’s… Spanish, Social work, and Schools with the advantage of hours that coordinated with her sons’ school hours. She was hired as the first Spanish-speaking social worker in the Brentwood School District.
   When she first started working in Brentwood, she didn’t know what to expect. She was in a different school every day working with a different principal in each. She was assigned to the elementary schools and was later called upon to go to the middle schools and high school when needed. She made a lot of home visits and worked very closely with the families in the community. She would often take teachers who wanted to meet with the parents of their students on home visits with her. Estelle defined her purpose as a social worker in the school as a liaison between the school and the home. She was certified as an attendance teacher, so she also worked with the students with chronic truancy.