New Fairfield educator selected for new school leadership position

NEW FAIRFIELD — A Meeting House Hill School administrator has been selected to serve as head principal of both Meeting House and the incoming Consolidated Early Learning Academy starting next fall.

Allyson Story said she’s “honored and humbled” to be selected for the recentlyformed position and looking forward to bringing Meeting House and Consolidated together to “work on one campus as two schools” and helping them grow.

The head campus principal position was created after the district decided to shake up the leadership structure of New Fairfield’s two elementary schools ahead of the Consolidated Early Learning Academy building project’s completion.

The Consolidated Early Learning Academy is a roughly 44,000-square-foot addition to Meeting House School for preschool through second graders that will replace the current Consolidated School. It’s on track to be completed by the start of next school year.

Although Consolidated and Meeting House will operate as two separate entities, the district has decided to have one head campus principal and three supporting administrators lead both schools instead of one principal and assistant principal for each.

The new leadership structure was proposed following community conversations about combining Consolidated and Meeting House into one school — an idea that emerged during a school board budget workshop in January and received backlash from concerned community members.

One resident — whose Change.org petition against a merger has garnered more than 280 signatures — noted that taxpayers approved the $29.2 million Consolidated Early Learning Academy project in October 2019 with the understanding Meeting House Hill would operate as a separate school.

The school board decided to seek public input on the possible merger and held listening sessions to get feedback and aid the district in developing a transition plan that would best serve students and make parents and staff comfortable.

After weighing the pros and cons presented during the sessions, Superintendent Pat Cosentino concluded that maintaining separate identities while allowing for “a natural process to merge them into one school over time” would be important and developed the new leadership structure for the two schools.

Cosentino said the new leadership structure is designed to work both now and in the future, while facilitating “smooth operations” on the campus.

“Although we’re trying to keep the identity of two schools … it’s still one building,” she said, noting the importance of having “someone in charge (of ) things like dismissal, buses and scheduling” in a building with shared spaces.

With Story tapped to be the head campus principal of Consolidated and Meeting House, work is underway to fill the three supporting administrator positions by the start of next school year.

Story’s educational career started 20 years ago, following her graduation from the University of

Massachusetts.

After working as a student-teacher and long-term substitute in Massachusetts, Story said she came to Connecticut to work as a third grade teacher at Wilton’s Cider Mill School.

After 13 years at Cider Mill — during which she also worked as a math instructional leader and team leader — Story said took a job as a K-5 math specialist at Ridgefield’s Farmingville Elementary School in 2015.

Two years later, she joined New Fairfield Public Schools as an assistant principal at Meeting House.

Cosentino said Story is a good fit for the head campus principal position because she’s not only “a strong instructional leader,” but she’s prepared “a comprehensive entry plan that will allow her to build strong relationships with staff, students and the community.”

“I am confident that Allyson will be an approachable leader who is supportive and kind and who puts children first,” she said.

Being selected to serve as Meeting House and Consolidated’s head campus principal is a dream come true.

“I’ve always had a dream of building my own school and being able to work with a community of educators who really want to work with students and do what’s right for them, and this is my chance to do that,” she said.

Story said she’s excited to not only grow the relationships she already has with Meeting House students, staff and families, but develop strong ones with those of the Consolidated community.

“To me, relationships are the key,” she said. “It’s important for everybody to feel part of the community and valued.”