Schools Shuffle Assistant Principals

In the ongoing effort to tackle a $2 million budget deficit, New Haven schools Supt. Madeline Negrón has shuffled nine assistant principals around to new schools for the upcoming academic year and eliminated two central office positions.

Those transfers were included in a personnel report presented Monday night at a Board of Education meeting held at John S. Martinez School.

The board does not vote on the transfers included in the ​“information-only” sheet.

Negrón has focused budget ​“right-sizing” cost-cutting efforts on prioritizing preserving positions of educators in core-subject classrooms and filling vacant positions where they’re most needed based on how many students are in which classrooms. (Read more about that here.)

After right-sizing classroom staff, Negrón began focusing this summer on central office positions. She decided to send two assistant principals assigned to the central office back into school buildings, and to cut those two positions that for years were ​“special assignments” to central office, Negrón reported at Monday’s meeting.

A total of nine assistant principals were transferred to new school buildings to fill either current vacancies or replace an administrator who was moved to another school. Each school this coming school year will lose an assistant principal position ​“in order to right-size, given current student enrollment levels.”

Wexler Grant and Brennan Rogers’ assistant principal roles will be replaced with an administrative intern rather than an assistant principal.

One of those transfers includes current central office ​”assistant principal” Laura Roblee, a former Brennan Rogers School principal who was demoted and reassigned to central office for her use of a racial slur in 2021. Roblee will take on the new role of Fair Haven School’s assistant principal.

Negrón told the Independent Monday that she feels the harm Roblee caused was addressed and that Roblee has learned from the incident. She added that in the spring, Roblee filled in for a Fair Haven School staffer out on maternity leave and that staff, students, and families responded well.

“She did a beautiful job, so I have full confidence that she’s going to be an asset to the staff and administration over at Fair Haven,” Negrón said. Roblee declined to comment for this story.

The second central office assigned ​“assistant principal” position is held by Eric Barbarito. He is transferring from his central office assignment to an itinerant assistant principal role, which will allow him to oversee physical education and athletics programs at multiple schools, school spokesperson Justin Harmon clarified in an email to the Independent Tuesday.

Once the transfers are effective as of Aug. 19, there will no longer be any more assistant principal special assignments at central office. This will help the district to gain a savings from those two cut positions, according to the superintendent.

The other assistant principals who will be transferred as of Aug. 19 include:

• Angela Brunson, who is moving from Wilbur Cross High School to Edgewood Magnet School, and will replace Chanel Rice.

• Cara Campo, who is moving from Bishop Woods to King/Robinson Magnet School, and will replace Emma Papandrea.

• Adham Conaway, who is moving from Davis Academy to Metropolitan Business Academy, and will replace James Moseley.

• Tianko Ellison, who is moving from Hill Regional Career High School to Wilbur Cross High School, and will replace Ann Brillante.

• Karen Lorde, who is moving from Wexler Grant School to Wilbur Cross High School, and will replace Angela Brunson.

• Nellie Martinez, who is moving from Fair Haven School to Bishop Woods Executive Academy, and will replace Cara Campo.

• Alex Sinclair, who is moving from Brennan Rogers Magnet School to Davis Academy, and will replace Adham Conaway.

Harmon told the Independent that these administrative moves and cuts will save a total of $301,348.

When asked what steps to expect next, Negrón said that she’s happy with school principal placements for the 2024 – 25 school year and will next look at other district departments.

“This year, I’m going to start taking a closer look at departments, positions, job descriptions. I want to see, is there duplicity in roles? Or, is there a better use of the current roles that we have?” she said.

She emphasized that the right-sizing process will continue into the upcoming school year to seize all possible opportunities.