Brownell Middle School’s gymnasium overflowed Wednesday night
with about 900 parents and teachers eager to see their students
receive awards for their hard work in the first quarter. Brownell
has experienced a transformation this school year with a new
principal and a slew of new math teachers.
Brownell Middle School’s gymnasium overflowed Wednesday night with about 900 parents and teachers eager to see their students receive awards for their hard work in the first quarter. Brownell has experienced a transformation this school year with a new principal and a slew of new math teachers.
Principal Francisco Fuentes was the Master of Ceremonies and extended a warm welcome to the audience after introducing himself. The Brownell Band, led by Director Tom Brozene, performed traditional Christmas carols to the cheers of students and parents.
Fuentes kicked off the awards by calling 92 students with perfect attendance to the stage. Towering over the children, Fuentes bestowed a certificate of award upon each student.
“I’ve never had perfect attendance in my life,” Fuentes said to the laughter of the audience.
Fuentes moved on to present awards to 250 students who earned grade point averages between 3.0 and 3.5, honor roll, or 3.5 and 4.0, principal’s honor roll. Of the 680 total students that attend Brownell, half received awards.
“Pretty impressive,” Fuentes said of his students. “They haven’t had this in five years. Everyone was very pleased.”
“This is a bigger turnout that back-to-school night,” said Gilroy Teachers Association president and former Brownell teacher, Michelle Nelson. A teacher in the district for almost 30 years, Nelson was impressed at the show of support at the awards ceremony. She was also there to watch her nephew, who plays clarinet in the school band, perform.
Brownell Parent Club president, Cheryl Galloway, attended to watch her sixth grade son receive his awards for perfect attendance and principal’s honor roll. “I have no doubt that my son is getting an amazing education at Brownell,” Galloway said.
Impressed with the new principal’s direct involvement with the students, she said the staff is focussed on providing a safe and comfortable atmosphere for the students.
“The principal is in the street with a crosswalk sign every day helping the kids cross the street,” she said. “He wants people to see him.”
Fuentes came to Brownell this fall with a daunting task to overcome. The third principal at Brownell in three years, he was hired to raise the school’s student achievement. In its third year as a program improvement school, a label designated by the school’s sub par score on the federal AYP measure, Brownell faces possible state intervention if standardized test scores do not improve.
Enter Fuentes, who faced similar challenges of raising achievement levels at his prior schools.
“We have a lot of growth to do in language arts and math,” he said. “But from the get go, our administration was very honest with the district about the amount of needs we have. We’ve been addressing them since day one.”
With a welcoming demeanor and open door policy, Fuentes plans to engage the community to raise the achievement of his students while providing a safe and orderly environment and implementing a rigorous curriculum.
“He’s already making changes,” said sixth grade math teacher, Mark Orsetti, who was formerly a social studies teacher at Brownell. Fuentes has rearranged certain positions and added several new teachers this year to suit the needs of his students.
“The sense of change so far is overwhelming,” Fuentes said.
