By Maria Caceres
With the new school year, two new administrators will have started with Bristol Public Schools. A new assistant principal for Greene-Hills Elementary School and new Supervisor of Secondary STEM were introduced at a special meeting of the Board of Education on Aug. 14. Subsequently, the have both been hired.
During the special meeting Erica Coleman, the then- dean of students at Greene-Hills was announced in the position.
“Nothing brings me more joy than working in a school building with our community, with students, our families and staff,” Erica Coleman, then the dean of students at Greene-Hills and the school’s new assistant principal said.
Coleman said she met with the School Climate Leadership team that day and looked at data and feedback from several surveys to help better the school environment.
“[We are] really looking at ways that we can strengthen and tighten systems and structures for being very clear in what our behavioral expectations are for all students and even staff at and within our school,” she said.
Members of the board of education said they were all excited to have her in the system and were looking forward to see what she does in the school.
Coleman was recommended to the board by acting superintendent Iris White, as was Laura Lanza. Lanza had been the math and business department leader for Farmington Public Schools and served in various leadership roles for 11 years.
“I ensure that the voices of students were at the center of our work by holding focus groups where teachers prepared questions and I moderated,” Lanza said.
She said one of her most significant accomplishments in her former positions was to change the mindset of students to stop thinking about failure but to think about what they need to improve on.
“Our ninth-grade algebra one enrollment decreased by half from 85 students to 40 students in the past two years,” Lanza said. “Meaning that 90 percent of our freshmen are now able to access calculus before graduating.”
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