The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

September 14, 2009

New Brookfield principal aims to boost scores and teach values

By Patrick Cooley

BROOKFIELD — Brookfield Local School District started its school year with a new superintendent at the helm, but the elementary school also had a change of leadership.

Joyce Baldwin who was most recently the the principal of Legacy Academy Elementary in Youngston, a charter school, was officially hired as the new Brookfield Elementary principal at the August school board meeting.

Brookfield Superintendent Tim Saxton said he was able to narrow a field of more than 20 candidates to eight, which he interviewed.

From those eight, he said he narrowed it down to three, who were interviewed by a panel of Brookfield Elementary teachers, and the school’s secretary. Of those three, Ms. Baldwin was chosen.

“With Joyce, we felt we were getting a quality person who has a large amount of experience that is extremely professional, and underlying all that cares deeply about student suceess,” Saxton said.

Ms. Baldwin has been working at the elementary level from more than three decades in Youngstown. Before teaching at Legacy, she was a teacher at Calvary Christian Academy in Youngstown for 10 years, and then its elementary principal for 15 years.

From there she served at Legacy for eight years, one and a half as assistant principal, and the remainder as principal.

Ms Baldwin came to Brookfield because she said it gave her the chance to work at a larger school.

Legacy Elementary had an enrollment of 250, while last year, Brookfield had an enrollment of around 320.

Ms. Baldwin’s duties at the charter school were two-fold, she said.

Because Legacy didn’t have a central office, as Brookfield does with its superintendent’s office, she said most of the administrative work was divided up among the principals.

“I really like the fact that I have the support of the central office,” Ms. Baldwin said. “It gives me the time to serve as an instructional leader.”

The difference between Calvary Christian and Brookfield, she said, is that religion cannot be taught openly at the public Brookfield schools.

“But I think a lot of religious values (taught at Calvary) are good values for life,” Mrs. Baldwin said. “Those values can be taught and modeled everywhere.”

Saxton has said that one of the things he hopes to improve is the district’s test scores.

Even though the testing at the elementary level isn’t as extensive as the middle and high school levels, Ms. Baldwin said she can help improve test scores by making sure the curriculum at the elementary school is aligned with Ohio’s academic content standards.

Ms. Baldwin said she plans to educate teachers on how to make sure this happens, and by continuing what was done by the previous elementary administration. Last year, Brookfield Elementary was designated an excellent school by the Ohio Department of Education.

Charter and private schools are not rated by the Ohio Department of Education, because they are operated with little or no state supervision.

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