Melissa Bailey Photo
New Haven schools have hired away an administrator from Hartford to help make the city’s enrollment process less confusing for parents.
The school board on Monday hired the administrator, T. Sherry Davis-Googe (pictured), to serve as the new director of choice and enrollment. The job pays $122,000.
Davis-Googe currently serves as director of school choice in Hartford, a city that dramatically expanded school options in the wake of a landmark school desegregation lawsuit. New Haven has a popular school choice system, too: This spring, 8,130 students applied for 2,394 open seats in magnet and charter schools.
Her job is the latest version of the magnet coordinator role that has been vacant since Bob Canelli retired. Schools Superintendent Garth Harries redefined the job when he reorganized school district central office roles last year. Now the job is more focused on registration and enrollment instead of magnet themes.
Davis-Googe said her top priority will be communicating with parents and making it easier for them to choose the best school for their kids. In brief remarks before the board, she announced that she joins the city with eight years of Spanish language study under her belt.
She later clarified that she does not speak Spanish fluently. But if parents come to her and speak it, “I can understand what they say.”
Born in Hartford, Davis-Googe attended Howard University and St. Joseph College. She currently lives in Hamden. She joins New Haven at a time when the district has debuted a new software system that aims to make the annual magnet lottery easier. Her job won’t be in the administrator’s union. She starts her job Aug. 11, just in time to sign up the last straggling families for the first day of school on Aug. 28.