August 29, 2012

Face of Mettawee changes

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By Bill Toscano

At Mettawee Community School, Brooke DeBonis is ready to get started in her new role as principal.

“I am really looking forward to the opportunity to be a leader,” said DeBonis, who opened the school year Wednesday, Aug. 29, replacing Nancy Marks, the only principal the two-decade old school ever had. “We are going to be looking for a lot of success.”

Stephanie Pierce will be stepping into DeBonis’ first-grade classroom, and Phoebe McChesney is joining the staff in special education.

DeBonis said she doesn’t plan a lot of changes.

“We’ll stick with what we have been doing, and then we will go from there,” said DeBonis, whose school has 35 prekindergarten students and 165 students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

“The main thing I want to see happen is for the students to adjust well to their new teachers,” DeBonis said.

In her mind, DeBonis added, there are two areas in which her school excels.

“We have highly qualified teachers who are very dedicated, and we have very strong family and community involvement,” she said.

Toward that end, the school will host its annual parents’ picnic at 5 this afternoon.

DeBonis, who has degrees from the University of Vermont and the College of St. Joseph’s, has been at Mettawee since 2004, teaching first and second grade. She has served on the school’s writing committee and leadership management team and has also done work at the regional supervisory union level.