New asst. sup’t of curriculum starts just in time for the 2023-24 school year
August 30, 2023 at 11:25 p.m.
After Dr. Tina Wilson attained her doctorate in educational leadership from Manhattanville College in 2019, she came to understand her interests in academia metaphorically.
A school district, she described, is like an ecosystem; every moving part impacts the entire network. And she’s the type of person who’s inspired to look at and improve the entire sphere, not just individual players—a systems level thinker, a big picture planner.
Given Wilson’s experience in STEM, the scientific analogy comes as no surprise. And Port Chester Schools administrators believe that background and perspective will make her a rich addition to the leadership team who also adds balance to their collective expertise.
With a salary of $215,000, Wilson was officially hired as the new Port Chester assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction at the July 27 Board of Education meeting, where Superintendnet Dr. Aurelia Henriquez described her as an enthusiastic collaborator eager to work with the community.
“Dr. Tina Wilson has spent more than two decades as a teacher and school leader,” Henriquez said. “Being a first-generation Korean American and a first-generation college graduate, Dr. Wilson understands the promise of quality public education, and she’s dedicated her career to serving students from diverse backgrounds.”
The position became vacant after Dr. Colleen Carroll was promoted to deputy superintendent in early July, as Dr. Mitchell Combs retired from that role at the end of the 2022-23 school year. Wilson embarked on her first day at Port Chester Schools on Thursday, Aug. 24, giving her two weeks to prepare for the return of students on Sept. 7.
With Wilson’s employment, the Port Chester School District’s top administrative team has become even more female led, with three of the four superintendency positions being held by women.
It’s support that’s unusual to see in the field of education.
While women make up the majority of teachers and around half of principals across the U.S., according to reports from the National Center for Education Statistics, men are typically employed at higher rates in senior leadership positions. Education Week reported in March 2022 that just 26 percent of superintendents are women.
But the Port Chester School District has been positioning itself to preach a different philosophy—not only in its hiring practices, but empowering affiliations. In February of 2021, for example, Carroll helped launch the Lower Hudson Valley Region chapter of the New York State Association of Women in Administration, and several Port Chester Schools employees served on the founding committee.
“It’s something I noticed, too,” Wilson said of the strong female presence in the administrative offices. “But I think it’s really, really important not just for little girls to see women in leadership positions, but all students to see that. You know, anything is possible, no matter who you are or what you look like. You just need to work hard.”
“It’s rare, perhaps, to have three females serving in these positions,” Henriquez said. “But I want to emphasize that they were selected because of their excellent reputations. I’m really excited about our team.”
Born and raised in Brooklyn and now living nearby in Connecticut, Wilson started her career in education over 20 years ago in her home-community as a secondary level mathematics and science teacher. Over the years, she’s earned a bachelor’s in biology and a masters in secondary education from Long Island University and pursued a masters in school administration and supervision from Touro College before heading to Manhattanville College for her doctorate.
Eager to take on more of that big picture presence, she served as an assistant principal in New York City and then at Hendrick Hudson High School in Montrose before accepting the principalship at Rye Neck High School, a neighboring community of Port Chester where she had been working for the last six years.
In Rye Neck, Wilson was proud to oversee a capital project that expanded the high school’s STEM wing and found success in bolstering elective opportunities—from creating a biomedical science pathway to adding classes in sociology and gender studies. All new initiatives were “based on student voice,” she said.
“I’m really passionate about education, and particularly curriculum because I feel all students have to have opportunities to access curriculum,” Wilson said of her desire to pursue a higher-level position. “I feel like in the building you’re constantly dealing with day-to-day crises, and what really excites me is developing teachers and working on curriculum.
“And while you are the lead learner as principal,” she continued, “I wanted more opportunities to engage in that work.”
Largely, she was attracted to Port Chester Schools because of the diversity of the student body. But beyond that, she said she admired the district’s “Success for Every Student” mission and the administration’s commitment to align their resources to support that work.
“I love the fact that they make decisions based on data, and they want to share that data openly with the community so they can really work towards moving the needle so that they can get every student to succeed,” she added. “That really spoke to me because it’s something I believe in, too. Everyone says it, ‘it takes a village,’ and it does. All the stakeholders have to work together with the school…to really find ways to help the students succeed and help the families in supporting their children succeed.”
Port Chester’s diversity undoubtedly impacts the lens that must be used while developing initiatives, Wilson said. It’s a community where it’s particularly important to ensure all students and parents have voices, and that those voices are heard, which is a philosophy she thinks should be reflected in the curriculum.
In her upcoming inaugural year, Wilson said she’s eager to aid and watch—to help the district move along in its current projects, while taking the time to learn about the schools’ needs.
“There’s a heavy emphasis on literacy, and I think that’s really important because literacy standards are embedded in each of the content areas,” she said, describing the district’s current priorities. While discussing the new American Reading Company curriculum at the elementary schools and touching on a new, soon-to-be public initiative at the high school, she added: “The emphasis is really K-12, which allows students no matter when they enter the district to really strengthen their literacy skills.”
Then, “I think any good leader goes into a situation ready to observe,” Wilson said. Over the next few months, she plans to engage with different stakeholders and engage in various perspectives so she can help develop long-term initiatives.
“Anything I do has to align with the district’s strategic goals,” she said. “Right now, there’s a heavy emphasis on data, and really using the data and communicating it with the community at large so we can help every child unlock their full potential.”
As deputy superintendent, Carroll expressed ecstatic sentiments over Wilson’s fit in the Port Chester Schools community—not only due to her qualifications, but her experience.
Equally passionate about curricular work, Carroll comes from a background that focused on literacy and elementary-level buildings. Now, Wilson brings to the table an expertise in STEM and secondary academics.
It makes for a well-rounded administrative team, Carroll said, and she’s ambitious about the implications.
“I feel with the two of us in these two positions, we cover K-12, all major subject areas. The knowledge base between us is very extensive, I would say,” she said. “It’s exciting because it’s something new for us here, to have that leadership coverage in all those depths of areas. I foresee us being able to accomplish so much because of that.”
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