The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Principals selected to replace 2 retirees
Ryan Walstrom, Allison Hine will follow Eileen Katz, Laurie Boske
PORTLAND >> New principals have been selected for the Gildersleeve elementary and Brownstone Intermediate schools.
The new principal at Gildersleeve is Ryan Walstrom, currently the assistant principal at the Pine Grove Elementary School in Avon. Walstrom, who will begin work in Portland in early July, will succeed Principal Eileen Katz.
Allison Hine, currently the assistant principal at the Mystic Middle School in Stonington, will succeed Principal Laurie Boske at BIS.
Boske and Katz, who have been the principals at their schools for the past 10 years — “We were hired weeks apart!” Boske said in an email Thursday — are retiring June 30.
Hines and Walstrom were selected from a pool of five finalists by Superintendent Philip B. O’Reilly. Their selections were then ratified by the Board of Education.
“Ryan will work in collaboration with students, parents and staff members and the district leadership to maintain a positive school climate and meet the needs of all learners,” O’Reilly said in announcing Walstrom’s appointment.
Walstrom began on the path that led to Portland and the Gildersleeve School by earning a bachelor of science degree in elementary and special education from Juniata College in central Pennsylvania. He then earned as master’s degree in reading and language arts from Central Connecticut State University and his sixth-year diploma in educational administration from the University of Connecticut.
Walstrom was a reading consultant in the Glastonbury school system, and then a second-, fifth-grade and special education teacher in the West Hartford school system prior to assuming the administrative position in Avon four years ago.
Hine followed a similar path to BIS. She began her career by earning a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Binghamton, then earned her master’s degree in elementary education from the University of Massachusetts in Boston, and, like Walstrom, her sixth-year diploma in educational administration from the University of Connecticut.
Prior to Stonington, Hine was a third-grade teacher in Old Saybrook school system. In addition to serving as assistant principal at both the elementary and secondary school levels in Stonington, she served as the social studies curriculum coordinator in kindergarten through grade eight.
Hine, who is married and the mother of two children, “enjoys many outdoor activities with her family,” O’Reilly said.
Speaking of her impending principalship, O’Reilly said, “Allison will bring to Brownstone School her commitment to providing young people with opportunities to experience the world and ignite their passion for exploration and life-long learning.”
In all, O’Reilly said, “(We) had 89 applicants for the two elementary principal positions. This was the strongest field of applicants for an elementary principal position that I have ever witnessed, and I have hired many principals.”