Wallkill native William Hecht returns to the Wallkill Central School District to serve once again as the newest member of the Wallkill Board of Education. Hecht joins the board following the departure of long-time member Vincent Petrocelli and will serve as the chair of the district’s legislative committee.

At the end of 2022, Hecht concluded a 40-year career of educational service with his final stop as the Chief Operating Officer [COO] for Orange-Ulster BOCES. Since his retirement, Hecht said he has had the opportunity to spend more time with his family and travel. When the opportunity to serve his district once again came up, he made the decision to jump back in and serve.

Now that he is back in the district and serving once again, he said he feels good to be back and is ready for the work ahead in 2024. He did admit that he will take the time to sit back, learn and observe in his new position. “I’ll be honest, since retiring, I found that my Wallkill roots run really deep. I’ve always been, you know, tied to Wallkill in one way or another and in retirement, that’s more true now than ever,” he said. “Given the opportunity to come back and work with [Wallkill Superintendent] Kevin Castle, again, that was not a hard decision.”

Hecht’s history in Wallkill stems back to when he was once a student of the very schools he would one day teach at and eventually lead as the high school principal and superintendent. Hecht was raised in the Town of Newburgh and attended Wallkill schools growing up. He played football when he was at Wallkill Senior High School and continued playing after graduating in 1979 at Central College in Iowa.

His decision to enter the educational field he credited to his mother who worked as a teaching assistant at Leptondale Elementary School. He recalled he went to visit her at the school during winter break his freshman year of college and had the opportunity to interact with the students. From that interaction at Leptondale, his path towards education was set.

Hecht obtained his bachelors in education in 1983 and began working in the Valley Central School District the same year as a special education teacher and coach. Hecht later taught and coached at Wallkill Senior High School and then in the Marlboro Central School District. He was also an assistant principal in the Fallsburg Central School District and then the elementary principal at Highland Elementary School. He returned to Wallkill in 2001 as the high school principal and rose through the ranks to superintendent before going on to BOCES in 2012 and thus concluded his career there.

Working now as the legislative committee chair, Hecht looks forward to working with politicians and other connections similar to his time as superintendent and COO, continuing to advocate for the district’s faculty and students. For 2024, Hecht looks ahead to moving the district forward with the leadership in place, acquiring state aid funding and creating accessibility to the growing technology of today. Hecht will serve out Petrocelli’s term and in the springtime, he plans to run for a board position alongside the other incumbent candidates.