PC P RO F I LE S
Caroline F. Braun OPC ’05 BY MARK F. BERNSTEIN OPC ’79
Comcast and other corporate partners. While all of her teachers and students have been working from home since August, Braun herself finds it easier to work at the school building. Most days, she said, it’s just her, other administrators and the custodial staff. Braun has worked at the Mayfair School since the start of the 2018-19 school year. Before that she spent a year at the school district’s Office of Teaching and Learning, working as an instructional coach for teachers and helping with their professional development. It isn’t always that a PC assembly leads to a career choice, but in Braun’s case she said it is true. She attended an Upper School presentation by Alyson Goodner OPC ’96, now the director of the Penn Charter’s Center for Public Purpose, on Goodner’s experience with Teach for America, the nonprofit that places recent college graduates as teachers in underserved communities around the country.
Covid-19 may have changed the way she does her job, but the responsibilities Caroline F. Braun OPC ’05 has as an assistant principal of the Mayfair School in Northeast Philadelphia remain the same. “We run the school!” Braun laughed when asked what an assistant principal does. “We make sure that operations are safe and functioning. We make sure that all of the distractions that happen at any point during the day are taken off teachers’ plates, so they can focus on instruction and ensure that children have a safe, welcoming environment. We manage everything else.” That is a tall order since the Mayfair School, with an enrollment of more than 2,100 students, is the largest K-8 public school in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It also serves a very diverse community—racially, ethnically and socioeconomically. More than half the students are designated as English language learners, which means that English is not the primary language spoken at home. When the School District of Philadelphia switched to remote learning back in March, one of Braun’s jobs was ensuring that each of the students was connected with a Chromebook, funding for which was provided by
A seed was planted, though nothing came of it for a while. After graduating from PC, Braun attended James Madison University, double majoring in English and Spanish. During a study abroad year in England and Spain, her interest in teaching was rekindled, and when she returned to the United States, she applied to Teach for America. Braun spent one year teaching English and Spanish at a charter school in Oakland, Calif., then six more years at a middle school and high school in Richmond, Calif. She returned East in 2016 to earn a master’s degree in school leadership at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education before finally moving back to Philadelphia. Philadelphia hoped to bring public school students back for in-person learning on Nov. 30, but a surge in covid cases has pushed that date back indefinitely. “When it becomes safe to bring the children back, we will,” is all Braun can say. “We just don’t know when that will be.” In one sense, she mused, remote learning has changed nothing about her responsibilities, but in another it has changed everything. “I still have the same responsibilities: support teachers, make sure the schedule runs smoothly and that parents’ requests and concerns are heard. I make sure the kids are safe and that our counselors have access to the right resources. We’re getting into the swing of it, but it’s not ideal. All of us are making the best of a difficult situation.” Despite her skills as a classroom teacher, Braun foresees her career as being in school administration. “I love what I do,” she said. “I love working with my students, and my teachers and staff, and my families. I deeply believe that providing equitable access to education for all children is what will ensure that our nation prospers.” PC
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