New Principal and Assistant Principal At Florence Roche Elementary School
Florence Roche Elementary School Principal Brian O’Donoghue
Florence Roche Elementary School Assistant Principal Alison Sancinto
Most schools in Groton-Dunstable district are large enough that they are actually managed by a team, headed by a principal and assistant principal. Groton’s oldest school, Florence Roche Elementary, is no exception. This year Florence Roche has both a new principal and assistant principal but they are already operating as a team.
Brian O’Donoghue comes to GD from Hamilton Wenham school district where he served as principal for the Bessie Buker Elementary school for 14 years. Buker Elementary was quite a bit smaller than Florence Roche in both population and the number of grade levels. The school was small enough that Brian had no assistant principal to help him.
Brian is looking forward to the challenge of operating a larger school, but is still hoping to be able to know most students in his building by name. Brian is also excited about participating in the planning process for a new building given recent advancements in using learning space designs to enhance the education process.
Assistant principal Alison Sancinito joins Groton-Dunstable from the much larger Arlington school district where she was on the middle school faculty teaching both English and Social Studies (a dual certified instructor). At Arlington Alison also participated in professional development activities across the district including leading sessions to help teachers plan for Arlington’s one-iPad-per-student initiative.
Alison holds a M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in Educational Leadership. While at Arlington she did an internship in administration in addition to her teaching and PD duties.
She is looking forward to working with students at a different developmental level (elementary vs. middle school) to diversify her experience with the overall learning process. She is also planning on continuing her contributions in the professional development realm and is already signed up to teach a course on “building learning communities” this school year.
Alison’s husband Joe is a high school history teacher. Their family includes Olivia (6), Charlie (4) and Ellie (8 months) who keep them quite busy outside of work.