New Middle Gate Principal Adjusts To The Job

By Jeff White

Five months after assuming the position of principal at Middle Gate elementary school, Judy Gallo sits back in her office and feels at ease. The 12-year teaching veteran credits this feeling to the support of both her faculty and the Newtown school district.

“I feel really comfortable with the people in this building,” Mrs Gallo said this week. “This is a district that is interested in reflecting on its practices, which is important.”

Mrs Gallo replaced Gary Hexom as principal in July. A graduate of Georgetown University, Mrs Gallo did not begin her teaching career after college, opting instead for a career in international business. She left her business career to raise her family, and for the past 12 years has taught in the Trumbull school district.

During her tenure in Trumbull, Mrs Gallo served as the program leader for social studies and language arts for the district, taught third through fifth grades, and was the instructional chairperson for Trumbull’s middle school language arts program.

“I had heard of the opening [in Newtown],” she recalled. “I had been keeping my ears open for the right match for me. [Newtown] just felt right.”

Reflecting on her teaching background, Mrs Gallo sees the role of principal as that of a bridge between students, teachers and parents. “I do see myself as a teacher. Right now, I see myself as a teacher of teachers, but I still work with students,” she explains. “I like working and teaching adults to help them develop good instruction strategies and to show them what good teaching is.”

Asked what makes a good principal, Mrs Gallo will tell you that communication is of paramount importance. As an administrator, Mrs Gallo says that her greatest role is to make people, both faculty members and students, feel valued.

Mrs Gallo takes the principal’s post at Middle Gate during a trying time in the Newtown school district. Student populations are growing at a rate that makes the need for effective teaching strategies more acute than ever before. Moreover, she is in the middle of her first budget, which she says is coming along well thanks in part to the support from other principals in the district. She says her biggest challenge is managing the development of new teachers at Middle Gate; the school has 19 non-tenured teachers out of a faculty of 44.

With the first half of the school year a little more than a month away, Mrs Gallo is looking ahead to some issues she wants to address in the months to come. She is already working on the development of an early literacy team, and hopes to further promote literacy by developing initiatives to improve awareness of phonetics in kindergarten and first grades.

Mrs Gallo said this week that things are going well, not least of all because she has already formed a bond with her school. “Middle Gate has heart,” she confided this week. “We see ourselves as a family, and there’s a real outreach to the community.”