O’Connell oversaw upgrades to school’s security
By Wiley Wood

Matthew O’Connell, who became principal of Norfolk’s Botelle School in the summer of 2014, formally presented his letter of resignation to the Board of Education on March 9, and the board accepted it.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mary Beth Iacobelli, speaking in a recent interview, praised O’Connell for his work in upgrading school security during his tenure. She also pointed to his key role in setting up structures to evaluate teachers and administrators, bringing Botelle’s practices in line with state mandates.

A six-member search committee was formed to select O’Connell’s replacement, and a call for applications went out in February. By the closing date of March 15, sixteen completed applications had been received. Applicants will be scheduled for interviews in April, and the new principal will assume his or her duties on July 1, 2016.

“We’re looking for someone with extensive administrative experience, a strong instructional leader, a person with highly developed people skills,” said Iacobelli, who will hold focus groups with teachers and staff to identify the traits most needed in a new principal.

“It should be someone supportive of good teaching and good learning, who will know and identify good teaching when it happens in the classroom and make sure that teachers who need support are getting it,” said Iacobelli.

At the same time, Iacobelli recognizes that Norfolk is geographically isolated and its salary for a full-time principal lower than in surrounding towns.

At the Board of Finance’s meeting on March 8, Iacobelli pressed for a $5,000 bump in the principal’s salary, saying: “Even with the increase, we would only be offering the principal $109,000. Barkhamsted, Colebrook, and Hartland are offering salaries in the $119,000–$124,000 range.”

O’Connell’s predecessor, Peter Michelson, who arrived at Botelle in 2008 without any prior experience as a principal, left in 2014 to become principal of a school in Farmington at a salary $30,000 higher.

“Because the superintendent is part-time, the principal has to wear many hats and do many, many things. It’s important that we keep the salary in the ballpark,” said Iacobelli.

The Botelle budget presented at the March 8 meeting of the Board of Finance represents a 2.3 percent increase over last year. “It’s unreasonable when everything goes up in cost to expect the school to keep its spending flat,” said Iacobelli. “It’s a very transparent budget, there’s nothing in there that we don’t absolutely need.”