The Board of Education (BOE) unanimously voted to hire Carla Tischio as the new assistant principal of Reed Intermediate School during its special meeting on Tuesday, July 29.

Tischio fills the vacancy left by former Reed Intermediate Assistant Principal, Jenna Connors, who assumed the role in 2021.

Connors later became Middle Gate Elementary School’s interim principal on March 8 of this year, and served in the position until the BOE hired her as Middle Gate’s new principal on July 8.

Tischio has been a Newtown Public Schools educator for nearly 25 years, the majority of which were at Reed. In 2021, she transitioned into the role of lead teacher at Hawley Elementary School until the position was restructured into an elementary assistant principal with special education oversight in the 2025-26 education budget.

Superintendent of Schools Anne Uberti said Tischio was selected from a pool of over 150 applicants.

She was also one of six candidates invited to interview with a large committee that included representatives of Reed, along with BOE member John Vouros and Assistant Superintendent of Schools Frank Purcaro. Uberti also attended these interviews as an observer.

From that group, three finalists advanced to a final round with Uberti, Purcaro, and BOE Chair Alison Plante. Uberti said Tischio distinguished herself through her unwavering dedication to Newtown Public Schools and her long-standing record of leadership.

Uberti said Tischio has been an active and valued contributor to numerous district and school-level committees throughout her tenure. Tischio’s deep institutional knowledge, collaborative spirit, and commitment to continuous improvement have made a lasting impact on the district, according to Uberti.

“Her return to Reed in a leadership role is both fitting and well earned,” Uberti said.

Several family members, friends, and colleagues attended the meeting to celebrate Tischio taking on the new position. The audience applauded her after the vote and personally congratulated her after the meeting.

“Thank you,” Tischio said. “I am beyond excited and grateful.”

BOE Non-Lapsing Account Expenditures

BOE members also discussed authorizing several expenditures from their non-lapsing account. All three expenditures were previously reviewed at the last BOE CIP/Facilities/Finance (CFF) Subcommittee meeting on July 21.

The first purchase is for window unit air conditioners to be installed throughout Newtown Middle School in the amount of up to $60,000, which the BOE approved in a unanimous vote.

Plante said there was excitement on behalf of the subcommittee for there being a chance to provide some way to alleviate the high temperatures in the middle school.

The building’s upper A-Wing was identified as a particular problem area by Facilities Director John Barlow, as temperatures in that wing would usually reach 88, 89, or even 90 degrees on hot days. The temperatures in lower A-Wing were only one to two degrees less than upper A-Wing.

Barlow said they could consider installing window units throughout the building, as the electrical load is fine and the building can accommodate it. Plante said the installation would also come at a fairly reasonable price.

“This isn’t a forever solution, but this gets us a step in the right direction while we sort out our broader facilities’ long-term plan,” Plante explained.

She said Barlow cautioned that he is by no means guaranteeing this work will be done before school opens in late August, as his crew is fulfilling their regular summer work. However, Plante said Barlow and his crew will see what they can do when they are available, or try to at least get units installed in the hottest areas of the building.

“And then the idea is that, whatever we can’t get done in the summer, we continue in the winter and then can get it fully installed by spring,” Plante said.

The next purchase using BOE’s non-lapsing account was for the purchase of Frontline time clocks in the amount of $14,913, also approved in a unanimous vote by the Board.

Director of Business and Finance Tanja Gouveia said this was another item discussed in the BOE CFF Subcommittee’s most recent meeting. The BOE currently uses NOVAtime for electronic timekeeping, but its parent company was purchased by software company UKG several years ago.

It was later decided to move the district’s electronic timekeeping to Frontline Education so as to have everything on one software, according to Gouveia.

Plante said the reason this was not budgeted for was because the district’s original plan was to use Chromebooks as a more cost-effective alternative for time clocks. However, since they cannot install Chromebooks in certain places across district buildings, Plante said they need to purchase the equipment.

Unfortunately the time clocks that Newtown currently has are not compatible with Frontline and the district will have to purchase new time clocks.

The district also has a trade-in value for its old time clocks, which Gouveia said should help ease costs.

“[It’s] great to use the non-lapsing account for this, too, because it’s a one time expenditure,” Gouveia said.

The final purchase is for hiring an outside advisor to review operational efficiencies and technology in the district’s human resources (HR) and finance departments, up to $30,000. This expenditure was also approved in a unanimous vote.

Gouveia talked about how she feels this is a really important process for the district. Uberti and Gouveia, who provided an update on the departments’ roles and responsibilities at the last BOE CFF Subcommittee meeting, believe there is a lot of overlap and want a company to evaluate the two departments.

“In my department alone, I want to make sure that everything is balanced,” Gouveia said. “We have a couple of employees that have been here for a very long time and have taken on a lot of work responsibilities, especially as positions have been eliminated.”

As for the district’s HR department, which consists of two people, Gouveia said their workload is “tremendous” throughout many times of the year. Uberti said she has a lot of concerns about the HR department, saying it is “pretty much a one woman show with one assistant.”

With the additional unionization of other employee groups, Uberti said the negotiation process alone is incredibly time consuming. There are also a lot of other components to the HR job in a district of this size, according to Uberti.

“I don’t want to just add a position because I don’t know if that’s necessarily the best thing to do,” Uberti said. “We feel this will be a good opportunity to have a set of outside eyes come in.”

This outside group would provide analysis and guidance for what the district should be looking at in terms of either manpower or potentially other augmented modification systems.

Gouveia said she already interviewed a company for around one to two hours, and that she would interview another company the following day.

Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.