The Board of Education unanimously hired Hawley Elementary School lead teacher Jenna Connors at its June 15 meeting to be Reed Intermediate School’s new assistant principal.

The position is left open by Reed Assistant Principal Jill Beaudry’s retirement. As previously reported by The Newtown Bee, Beaudry was first hired in the district in 2004 as a part-time gifted and talented teacher. She later became a fifth grade teacher, and in 2014 she was hired as assistant principal.

Beaudry, Reed Principal Dr Matt Correia, Hawley Principal Christopher Moretti, other district educators, and Connors’s family members were present for the June 15 meeting, and when Connors was voted to be the new intermediate school assistant principal, many stood up to applaud the news.

Connors has served as Hawley’s lead teacher since 2017, and prior to that she was the school’s math/science specialist. She has also taught in Weston and in Virginia.

Her new role as Reed assistant principal will start on July 1 and her salary will be determined by the district’s administrators contract.

After hearing her board members vote, Chair Michelle Embree Ku said, “The motion passes unanimously. Congratulations,” to resounding applause from audience members.

Superintendent of Schools Dr Lorrie Rodrigue shared the district leaders are “thrilled... to have Jenna move to Reed to work with Dr Correia. I know she has done an outstanding job at Hawley, and I know Mr Moretti will miss her greatly. [We] are so impressed by all of the work you have done with students and staff and I know that will continue.”

Connors then thanked school board members and the interview committee for the opportunity to be Reed’s new assistant principal.

She also thanked Dr Rodrigue; Assistant Superintendent of Schools Anne Uberti, who is the former Reed principal; and Dr Correia for “the trust and confidence that you are placing in me with this role.”

“I feel very honored to be able to continue in Newtown Public Schools,” said Connors, “and grow with the staff at Reed school.”

She also thanked her Hawley “family.”

“I have been so fortunate to have them there for nine years, to grow and learn from all of them,” said Connors. “I will miss them. I am so excited, though, that I am just down the road and I get to receive all these kids that I have worked with over the past several years now and see them continue in fifth and sixth grade.”

Connors also shared a “special thank you” to “mentor and friend” Moretti for taking her “under his wing.”

“He has exposed me to all aspects of school leadership and I know that is what has prepared me for this next step,” said Connors, who added she is excited to get to know the Reed staff, families, and “especially students.”

A look at other topics covered at the Board of Education's June 15 meeting is available with this story in The Newtown Bee's June 18 print edition.