New Principal Sets Sights High For Wilbur Cross

by THOMAS BREEN

One month and one day into his new job as principal of New Haven’s largest high school, Matthew Brown hopes to help make Wilbur Cross “the premier urban comprehensive high school in the state of Connecticut” even as he, his colleagues, and the school’s 1,642 students face head on the challenges presented by pandemic-era disruptions to public education.

Brown offered that take during a brief interview with the Independent Friday morning while hustling between an outdoor press conference celebrating a $4.35 million sports complex overhaul and a planned meetup with a group of students inside the halls of the Mitchell Drive high school.

A former High School in the Community Building leader who left the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) in 2021 for a job as chief turnaround officer in Waterbury’s public school district, Brown was tapped in December to be Wilbur Cross High School’s new principal. He replaced the high school’s interim principal, NHPS Supervisor of Youth, Family and Community Engagement Kermit Carolina, who filled in since October when his predecessor, John Tarka, left his job as Wilbur Cross’s principal after only five weeks of classes.

Brown formally began his new Wilbur Cross head job on Jan. 23 making Friday the one-month- one-day-iversary in the role. He’s begun the job as the district as a whole struggles with low test scores in math and literacy, high rates of chronic absenteeism, and teacher shortages citywide, all as NHPS looks for a new superintendent to replace the soon-to-retire

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