Allan Appel File Photo
Fair Haven School Principal Margaret-Mary Gethings is leaving New Haven to become principal at John B. Sliney School in Branford.
She said the lateral move was “probably the most difficult decision I’ve made in my life,” since her job at Fair Haven School was the “best experience I could ever ask for as an educator.” The Branford Board of Education is to vote her into the position Wednesday night, and she will start in July.
Gethings has been in New Haven for 15 years, starting as a teacher at Wexler Grant School and later teaching at Benjamin Jepson School and Worthington Hooker School. She was Fair Haven School’s assistant principal for four years, and its principal for four years. Fair Haven School has the city’s largest percentage of immigrant children.
Gethings said she had always been interested in joining Branford’s school system, so she decided to apply for the vacancy at Sliney School when it came up a couple of weeks ago. Sliney School is smaller than Fair Haven, a K‑4 instead of K‑8, which “interested” her, Gethings said.
Superintendent Garth Harries said losing Gethings was “disappointing,” since she “has been a very wonderful educator in New Haven for a long time and a big supporter of our work in New Haven and of New Haven School Change.”
He found out about her plans to leave a few weeks ago, though nothing had been decided until “very recently,” he said. “I talked to her and I think she was very torn. I knew it was a possibility. It was far from definite.”
Gethings said working at Fair Haven has been her favorite job so far, in part because the school community’s “earnest commitment in putting children first in everything.” But she said she was ready for a change.
Harries said this year has marked fewer resignations of school administrators than previous years, in which “we’ve had to replace on the order of eight to ten principals a year. This year, we have had just one” replacement. The Board of Education unanimously voted Monday to fill Troup School’s principal vacancy with its interim principal Michelle Bonora.
He said it is not necessary to replace Gethings immediately since school does not start again until late August. “We will take the time to make sure we make a thoughtful and appropriate decision,” he said.