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Brown: Coming back to NHPS.
Former High School in the Community Building Leader Matthew Brown is heading back to the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) district to become Wilbur Cross High School’s third principal so far this academic year.
The Board of Education voted 5 – 1 on Monday night to approve Brown’s administrative appointment as new permanent principal of Wilbur Cross. That vote took place during the ed board’s latest regular bimonthly meeting, which was held online via Zoom.
Brown, who left NHPS in 2021 for a job as chief turnaround officer in Waterbury’s public school district, will begin his new job at Wilbur Cross on Jan. 23, 2023, at an annual salary of $168,880.
He will replace the high school’s interim principal, NHPS Supervisor of Youth, Family and Community Engagement Kermit Carolina, who has been filling in since October when his predecessor, John Tarka, left his job as Wilbur Cross’s principal after only five weeks of classes.
Brown previously served for five years in the principal-like building leader role at High School in the Community (HSC), where he helped the school double its graduation rate from below 50 percent to almost all students leaving with a diploma.
Over the past year Brown has continued to live in New Haven and is a parent of three students who attend Cross.
After Monday’s vote, Brown described his acceptance of the position and return to New Haven as an “honor” and “privilege.”
He described Cross as “a school that we love and a school that we see the power and potential in, and a place that we also clearly see the challenges that remain.”
He reminded the board that with the help of his previous work at HSC the school has since gone from a Level 5 turnaround school to a Level 3 turnaround school.
Board member Abie Benitez celebrated that a New Haven parent will be the principal of New Haven’s largest high school and that Brown, who she described as a “stakeholder inclusive leader,” is retuning home.
She added that she looks forward to the new knowledge that Brown will bring to New Haven from his work in Waterbury. “They go, they learn, and they come back to make things better in our city,” she said.
The only board member to vote against Brown’s appointment was Darnell Goldson, who said he voted “no” because of what he described as conflicting information provided to board members about the improvement of HSC’s chronic absenteeism and graduation rates over the past four years.
Brown accepting appointment at Monday's board meeting.