Thomas Breen photo
Wilbur Cross Principal Matthew Brown on Friday.
One month and one day into his new job as principal of New Haven’s largest high school, Matthew Brown hopes to help make Wilbur Cross “the premier urban comprehensive high school in the state of Connecticut” — even as he, his colleagues, and the school’s 1,642 students face head on the challenges presented by pandemic-era disruptions to public education.
Brown offered that take during a brief interview with the Independent Friday morning while hustling between an outdoor press conference celebrating a $4.35 million sports complex overhaul and a planned meetup with a group of students inside the halls of the Mitchell Drive high school.
A former High School in the Community Building leader who left the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) in 2021 for a job as chief turnaround officer in Waterbury’s public school district, Brown was tapped in December to be Wilbur Cross High School’s new principal. He replaced the high school’s interim principal, NHPS Supervisor of Youth, Family and Community Engagement Kermit Carolina, who filled in since October when his predecessor, John Tarka, left his job as Wilbur Cross’s principal after only five weeks of classes.
Brown formally began his new Wilbur Cross head job on Jan. 23 — making Friday the one-month- one-day-iversary in the role. He’s begun the job as the district as a whole struggles with low test scores in math and literacy, high rates of chronic absenteeism, and teacher shortages citywide, all as NHPS looks for a new superintendent to replace the soon-to-retire Iline Tracey.
How’s it going so far?
“It’s going great,” Brown said about his time at Cross so far. “People have been incredibly welcoming.”
Brown lives in the city. Three of his children are currently students at Wilbur Cross.
“There is an enormous amount of pride in that building,” he said. He said he’s been “impressed by the amount of love people have for this school, both what it has been and what it can be.”
What are some of the biggest challenges he’s seen facing the Cross community one month in to his new job as principal?
“Education prior to Covid and education post-Covid, the scale of the challenges has changed.” He said he’s worked in education for three decades. This moment — three years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic — feels unique.
“How do we make sure that we’re really utilizing our strengths and helping students to understand that they are resilient despite the fact that all of them have had interrupted educations because of Covid?” he asked. While New Haven may be nearing the other side of Covid as a “public health emergency,” “the effects of that, of having your schooling interrupted, are going to be with students for years and years.”
Thus one of the biggest challenges — and opportunities — he and his colleagues face. “How do we help [students] feel strong in what they know how to do even as we’re pushing them to be open to some of the things that they still have to learn. That’s something that, quite frankly, is going to take years.”
Any big-picture goals for his tenure as Cross principal?
Brown said he thinks that the school, which currently has around 1,642 students, making it the largest in the city, can be a “premier urban comprehensive high school” in the state. “I believe that’s a worthy goal.” He said that “Getting some of the resources and facilities” that the school needs — like the now-started $4.35 million overhaul of the athletic complex — “will be reflective of that. That’s the type of school that all of our students deserve to go to.”
What is a moment or experience that has stuck with him in his first month on the job so far?
Every morning, Brown said, “I stand right there in the atrium and welcome in all the buses and the walkers and the students getting dropped off. It’s this wave of diversity, in the age of students, the background of students, what they’re coming in with, who’s excited to show up, who’s a sleepy 15-year-old who maybe just rolled out of bed and maybe is not excited to show up. Just being able to connect with the students as they start their days, it’s the best part of my day. And those get to happen every morning.”
“It really affirms for me that Wilbur Cross is New Haven,” he continued. “It’s what our city is.”