Lisa Carter Appointed Principal of Salisbury Central School
By Sally Quale

Lisa Carter
Photograph by Bruce Frisch

Each morning about 6 a.m., Lisa Carter drives west out of Norfolk on Route 44 to Lakeville to begin her day as the new principal of the Salisbury Central School.

Despite her initial anxiety, when the Board of Education offered her the opportunity to become interim principal last summer, she accepted. Now, formally appointed to the position at the end of January, she happily professes, “It’s the best job I’ve ever had”.

To begin with, Carter says she finds herself working at a school with “an incredibly talented team of teachers” supported by “a wonderful community of families.” Currently, the school has  a staff of 70 and 311 students in Pre-Kindergarten through eighth grade who will move on to attend Housatonic  in Falls Village.

Secondly, Carter is enormously gratified to find that this job is making use of the entire resume of skills, work experience and interests she has built over the years in the fields of education and management in both the public and private sector.  An initial B.A. from Georgetown University in Mandarin led her to employment in language and cultural support for an oil company in China. Next, an M.B.A. from the University of South Carolina. equipped her for over a decade of business consulting in Los Angeles and Boston.

Finally, moving to northwest Connecticut in 2003 with her husband, Warren and two young sons, she began teaching social studies at Housatonic,  Valley Regional High School in Falls Village where she chaired several programs including the China sister school program based in Shandong Province. During this period, Carter also studied and received a sixth year degree in Educational Leadership at Central Connecticut State University.

The Carter family moved to Norfolk in June, 2011 where they had friends. Currently, son Rob is a freshman at Lynchburg College in Virginia, and son Michael is a sophomore at Northwest Regional High School in Winsted. Carter’s husband is also a daily commuter to Lakeville/Salisbury where he is Manager of Salisbury Wines, but they are two-car commuters, each with quite different work schedules.