Newtown Resident Studying

 To Be A Principal

When her students head home from school, the learning is just beginning for Newtown resident Tina Hislop, an assistant principal at Rogers Park Middle School in Danbury, and her colleagues from Fairfield County’s three other city school districts.

The Urban School Leaders Fellowship, an initiative of the Fairfield County Community Foundation in Norwalk, was created to help prepare for a continuity of leadership in city schools.

Within five years, nearly half of the principals and assistant principals in the Danbury, Stamford, and Norwalk public schools are expected to retire. In Bridgeport, eight out of ten are expected to retire in the same time period. The initiative will address this leadership gap by increasing the number and diversity of principals with the skills to lead county’s urban schools.

Over the next year, Ms Hislop and 30 other Fellows will continue their training with the Connecticut Center for School Change and Richard Lemons from the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education. The goal of the collaborative effort is to have up to two-thirds of the graduating Fellows become urban school principals in Fairfield County over the next five years. The first class of Fellows was funded by a $200,000 grant from the Fairfield County Community Foundation.

The Fairfield County Community Foundation promotes the growth of community and regional philanthropy to improve the quality of life throughout Fairfield County.