Orange BOE Welcomes Two New Faces

The officially welcomed Eric Carbone to the Orange community at its meeting last night, with the new principal of the  expected to start in the district by July 1.

Mr. Carbone comes to the district from Wallingford, where he has served as assistant principal of the Dag Hammarskjold Middle School.

“He’s got everything we need at Peck Place,” said , who noted that the new principal was chosen from nearly 40 applicants.

BOE Chairman Jeanne Consiglio said, “From the beginning, Eric stood out.” 

“He did his research. He knew the town,” said Keith Marquis, the BOE vice-chairman.

Carbone affirmed, “This is the right place for me. I want to be here.”

Technology in the Schools

In addition, the board welcomed Matthew Bruder as technology administrator. 

At present, Bruder serves as assistant technology administrator in Milford. The superintendent praised him for his “ability to connect with a school environment” and said she looked forward to his continuing to lead the district into the 21st century.

Retention Revisited

After a short break where the new administrators mingled with those present at the meeting, the superintendent turned to other business, including the issue or retention that arose in May when the board learned that first graders at the Peck Place School would be held back.

McMullin repeated her determination to submit a report to the board on the issue of retention by the end of this summer, noting that the district’s current policy on retention is 12 years old. She termed the district's policy “not terribly misaligned” with the research on retention, but she did say that “our policy may be misaligned in its application.”

As she had remarked in an earlier , she observed that “the full body of research does not support retention. It supports intervention.”

In her remarks oo the board’s position on the issue, Consiglio emphasized that the board is “not here to look at individual” children. Rather, she said, the board and superintendent wished the number of students being retained had come out a lot sooner — preferably, before the budget was adopted so that any curricular or staffing issues could have been addressed.

Said Consiglio: “Is there a problem along the line? . . . That’s the issue for the board.”  

State Pilot Program

At the meeting, the superintendent also expressed her appreciation of the fact that Orange will join Bethany and Woodbridge as a consortium in a state Board of Education pilot program to evaluate teacher and administrator performance in the new fiscal year. 

“I think it’s a really good thing to be in on the ground floor,” she said. 

Implementation of the evaluations, which will be piloted in 10 districts or district consortia across the state, is scheduled for the 2013-14 school year.