The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Tranberg Branford school superintendent
BRANFORD — One morning, early on in the interview process to become Branford’s next superintendent of schools, Christopher Tranberg, Ph.D. stopped at Breakfast Connections on Main Street.
“I walked in the door and immediately, it’s my first time ever in the place, I felt like everyone knew me and welcomed me,” he said in a phone interview, adding he had the same experience at Common Grounds Coffee.
“There are a lot of benefits to running a school system in a community where everyone seems to know everyone,” he said.
On Wednesday, Branford Board of Education search committee officially recommended the selection of Tranberg as Branford’s next superintendent. Pending full board approval, Tranberg, 44, will begin work July 1, 2023. He succeeds Hamlet Hernandez who announced his retirement last year after 13 years as superintendent.
Tranberg has been assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for Darien schools since 2020. Prior to that, he was assistant superintendent in Granby, principal of Avon High School, assistant principal of Simsbury High School, and director of performing arts for Simsbury Public Schools.
A conservatory-trained musician in voice and piano, Tranberg got his start as an elementary school music teacher in Connecticut, New Jersey and Ohio before embarking on a career as a public school administrator.
Tranberg, who went on to earn his Ph.D. in educational policy, research and administration from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said his music background and experience helped fine-tune both his teaching and leadership skills.
“The training requires a lot of dedication and discipline from practice to presentation and performance,” he said.
As a choir director, “you are working togeth
er with a lot of people at the same time who have different roles and responsibilities, but all toward a common goal,” he said. “In education, that goal is always what is best for our students.”
Board Chairmain Peter Berdon praised Tranberg’s “commitment to providing access to learning for all students and to building a professional learning
culture that creates the best teachers and system leaders.”
“We see Dr. Tranberg as the perfect candidate to build on the successes of Superintendent Hernandez who has effectively led Branford schools through some of the most challenging times in our history,” he said.
Tranberg said his priority is to get feedback from all stakeholders in the district, from teachers, paras, and administrators, to students, parents, and PTOs.
“I’ll be asking questions that really focus on things like ‘what are you proud of, what do you find challenging, what do you hope for the future, and if we could stop doing something, what would it be.’” he said.
His other focus is on the students themselves, both inside the classroom and in extracurricular activities. “When we go into education, it’s for kids and every connection that I can make with the kids is what brings meaning, and life, to the work,” he said.