Stonington High School Hires Associate Principal

Information via Stonington Public Schools

STONINGTON, CT — Stonington Public Schools and Mark Friese (Stonington High School) today announced that Alicia Sweet Dawe, 2019 Connecticut Elementary Principal of the Year has begun work at Stonington High School as its new Associate Principal, effective July 1st.

Dawe joins Stonington High School after serving seven years as principal at West Vine Street and West Broad Street schools, which merged last year with the completion of renovations at West Vine. During her tenure, she was awarded Connecticut Elementary Principal of the year (2019) and West Broad Street School was awarded by the Connecticut State Department of Education, School of Distinction for Academic Performance (2016) for closing achievement gaps and improving student outcomes for all children.

In addition, Dawe’s 25 years of experience includes time as a teacher at Dean’s Mill Elementary School, where she also served as an assistant principal. Dawe was also accepted into and completed the Women’s Leadership Program at Yale University, School of Management in February 2019. In addition to her expertise in school administration, Dawe is a mother to 3 teen-age girls, so she will use her ability and experience relating to students as a parent to increase engagement by creating supports to enhance students’ abilities to advocate for themselves and others at Stonington High School.

Additionally, Alicia’s abilities and experiences benefitting Stonington High School include:

· As a participant at the United States Capital in a networking event for award winning teachers across the country, she established new connections from across the US to tap for shared experiences, as a result of her receiving the 2019 Elementary School Principal of the Year by the Connecticut Association of Schools.

· Leveraging her leadership and parenting skills to coordinate the development and implementation of a new comprehensive K-12 student self-advocacy program called VOICE that focuses on educating and empowering all Stonington students so as they graduate they will have the skills to thrive in an ever-changing world.

“We are excited to have Alicia on board to continue the work done by recently retired Neal Curland. In addition to the work done by Neal, she will oversee a student empowerment initiative to ensure every student in the district develops the skills and belief system to advocate for themselves and their peers” states Stonington High School Principal Mark Friese.

The new program is an expanded version of a highly successful VOICE pilot program, that will now include an increased focus on high school students.
VOICE will also include the following:

• Input from SHS post-graduates and alumni to provide lessons on anti-racism and anti-racism education.

• A close partnership with Safe Futures and Stonington Human Services to provide instant access to counseling services when needed

• Utilization and expansion of the Link Crew program to communicate to new students ways they can feel empowered to speak up, report issues that make them uncomfortable, and provide peer mentoring

• Introduction of the new female Stonington Police Department Youth Officer, and a discussion on her role, and contact information

• Fine-tuning a defined process for tracking incidents and issues, and how they are resolved

• An improved system for providing anonymous complaints or concerns if a student does not feel comfortable or feels threatened by another student or staff member or family member

• Ongoing training programs provided by Safe Futures and other outside agencies for Staff and Students.

“Alicia not only brings considerable expertise, but also a fresh perspective, and has nurturing qualities that make her approachable,” says Mary Anne Butler, Assistant Superintendent. “We are looking forward to her utilizing her past relationships with many of our existing students, and boundless energy to make an immediate impact on improving school morale during challenging times brought on by COVID-19.”