Melissa Bailey Photo
Edith Johnson takes over Wilbur Cross on July 1.
A fast-rising star is taking over the city’s largest, troubled high school with a mission to tackle chronic absenteeism and stop English-language learners from dropping out of school.
Edith Johnson (pictured) took on that mission Monday as she became the next principal of Wilbur Cross High School.
She was one of five women named to new principal posts at Monday’s school board meeting: Zakia Parrish will lead Hyde Leadership Academy; Tara Cass will take over Nathan Hale; Rosalind Garcia will head to Bishop Woods; and Yolanda Jones-Generette will be in charge of Lincoln-Bassett. The school board also hired Jessica Haxhi, of Waterbury, as the new supervisor of world languages. They all start their jobs July 1.
The appointments come as the district looks to fill vacancies left open by principals who retired or left for another district. The district still needs to find principals for Brennan-Rogers School, John C. Daniels, and Polly McCabe, a small high school for pregnant teens.
Of the new appointees, Johnson takes on the biggest task of all: Leading the city’s largest high school out of a slump of poor morale, low attendance and a widening gap in performance between English-language learners and their peers. As principal, she will launch a new “turnaround” experiment supported by the state. The plan calls for hiring a New York-based organization to help create a new International Academy within the 1,400-student school targeting English-language learners— click here to read more about that.
“I’m excited to take on the challenge,” said Johnson.
Johnson, who’s 35, said her experience as assistant principal of Montgomery Blair High, a 2,900-student high school in Maryland, has prepared her for the job.
Her appointment Monday marks a swift ascent through the ranks of the New Haven school staff. She arrived in New Haven only two years ago. She started out as an assistant principal at Fair Haven School, then last summer became principal of John C. Daniels School, a K‑8 in the Hill with a dual language program. Before coming to New Haven, she spent eight years in Montgomery County, Maryland, as a teacher and assistant principal.
During Johnson’s time at Daniels, the school was named a Magnet School of Distinction by the Magnet Schools of America, the national association for magnet and theme-based schools. It also passed its New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) accreditation “with flying colors,” she said.
Johnson’s parents hail from Puerto Rico; she grew up in Westchester County, New York. She is fluent in Spanish; Cross has a new focus on English-language learners, most of whom are Hispanic. When she switches from Daniels to Cross, her salary will rise from $126,818 to $137,951. She will oversee about 110 classroom teachers and seven assistant principals and a budget of over $11 million.
In brief public remarks Monday evening, Johnson thanked the school board for the promotion, but joked that it may create problems at home: Her husband, Joseph Johnson, is a graduate of Cross’s rival, James Hillhouse High School.
Johnson replaces Peggy Moore, who is retiring after a controversial, three-year stint at Cross.
Yolanda Jones-Generette (pictured), the assistant principal at Barnard Environmental Studies Magnet School, is also taking on a formidable challenge. She’ll be replacing retiring principal Ramona Gatison at Lincoln-Bassett, one of the lowest-performing schools in the district. The school was one of only a handful that saw drops in overall satisfaction on school surveys last year.
The 400-student school will spend one year putting together a school improvement plan, and then may become the system’s next “turnaround” in the fall of 2014, said Superintendent Reggie Mayo. If it becomes a turnaround, Jones-Generette would be empowered to boot teachers and hire replacements; the teachers would be guaranteed work elsewhere in the district.
Jones-Generette grew up in the Annex neighborhood, where she still lives. She attended New Haven public schools as a kid and came back to work in the system as a teacher in 1994. She’ll be returning to familiar turf: She already worked at Lincoln-Bassett as a literacy coach. She has also worked at Wexler-Grant, Helen Grant and Fair Haven schools.
Jones-Generette said in her new role, her top priority will be “building positive relationships” with parents and involving them in the school.
At the last survey, two-thirds of parents said they would recommend the school; so few parents participated in the surveys the previous two years that the results were not reported.
Tara Cass (pictured), an administrative intern at Nathan Hale School, will be promoted to principal there. Cass, who’s in her 10th year in the district, will replace retiring principal Lucia Paolella.
Cass went through the city’s new principal training program that’s run in conjunction with Achievement First charter schools. Through the program, which launched in 2011, teachers spend half a year embedded at a charter school and the other half at a traditional public school, while undergoing other training.
Cass is one of the first two graduates of the program to land principal jobs. She went through the training program in 2011-12, then spent a year as an administrative intern, filling in the role of assistant principal without the full pay or power that comes with the job.
The other graduate is Zakia Parrish (pictured), an assistant principal at Wilbur Cross. Parrish will be taking over Hyde Leadership Academy, replacing retiring principal John Russell.
Rosalind Garcia (pictured), assistant principal of Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School, will be heading to Bishop Woods School, replacing retiring principal Barbara Chock.
Jessica Haxhi (pictured), who currently teaches in the Waterbury Public Schools, will join central office staff as the new foreign language supervisor with a salary of $127,381. She replaces Karen DeFur.
Principal salaries range from $124,324 to $137,951.
The hires follow a new schedule for principal appointments that aims to give plenty of time to allow for the transition. As part of the process, teachers and parents get a say in interviewing the candidates.
The new principals will go to a “new principal boot camp” in July to prepare them for their new jobs.
Are there any changes scheduled for Hillhouse -- one of the lowest performing high schools in the system?