Headmaster Hired for Ludlowe High

The Board of Education voted tonight to hire the principal at East Haven High School as the headmaster at Fairfield Ludlowe High School effective July 1.

Vanessa N. Reale, who is expected to receive her doctoral degree in Educational Leadership later this year from the University of Hull in Hull, England, takes over for interim Headmaster David M. Ebling.

"Vanessa puts a premium on using data to systematically analyze student achievement, curriculum effectiveness and instructional practices, and it became apparent during the [search] committee's site visit to East Haven High School that, under Vanessa's leadership, this focus has improved the overall teaching and learning environment for teachers and students," said Gary Rosato, the Fairfield school district's director of curriculum, instruction and assessment.

Rosato said Reale included students in improving East Haven High School through a group called "Student Voices" and that she met regularly with the group "resulting in a higher degree of engagement and commitment to learning by the student body."

"While at East Haven High School, Vanessa has promoted such initiatives as developing professional learning communities, fostering healthy habits for students and teachers, developing common formative and summative assessments leading to data-driven decision making, and engaging students in the improvement plans within the school," Rosato said.

Reale has been principal at East Haven High School since 2006 and she was assistant principal at Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Middletown from 2001 to 2006. From 1984 to 2001, she worked in the Clinton public school system - as a history and law teacher in high school from 1996 to 2001, as a social studies teacher in middle school from 1984 to 1996 and as an interim assistant elementary school principal in 1998.

Reale received a bachelor of science degree in Art from the University of Massachusetts and a master's degree in Environmental Education and a sixth-year degree in Administration and Supervision from Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven. She received her superintendent's certificate in 2004 from that university.

The title of Reale's doctoral dissertation was "Creating Health Promoting Schools in a Standards Based Culture: A Leadership Perspective."

Reale's salary as headmaster at Ludlowe High was not immediately available.