New principal named for Braintree's Highlands Elementary School
BRAINTREE — Caitlin Long, a Framingham educator, will be the new principal of Highlands Elementary School, School Superintendent James Lee announced.
Long has worked as the vice principal of Brophy Elementary School in Framingham for the last three years. Before that, she was a teacher in the Everett schools, a facilitator of professional development and a researcher at Boston College. She has extensive experience working with English language learning students, Lee said.
She holds a doctorate in education from Boston College, a master's in secondary education in history from Boston College and a bachelor's in history and classics from Boston College.
Lee said the search for the job was reopened after the search committee did not find a candidate to recommend in the first round.
Long will take over from Nancy Pelletier, who is retiring after 15 years as the Highlands principal.
In other business, the school committee heard a report from Kerrin Driscoll, of the Braintree School Safety Advocacy Group, about a security audit done on the school system's buildings. The report, conducted by by Good Harbor Techmark, of Norwell, recommended $2.5 million in security improvements to school buildings, most of them defined as critical or high priority.
She said the group was formed after the 2018 shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Driscoll said part of the reason the cost is so high is the age of the school buildings, which were built "when security wasn't the issue it is today."
Voters at a 2020 special election approved a $1 million Proposition 2½ debt exclusion override – a temporary tax increase – to pay for school security improvements, including $35,000 for the study.
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Driscoll said a $500,000 grant from the federal Department of Justice will help pay for improved communications between schools and police, one of the recommendations of the study.
A task force will be set up to recommend which measures should be implemented. It will be made up of school administrators, police, teachers, parents and high school students.
Lee said improvements should be equitable across the system.
Mayor Charles Kokoros said improving school security is a top priority.
"'I'll try to get things moving forward," he said.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Framingham educator new principal at Braintree's Highlands School
