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New principal at Rogers Elementary aims high

Ann Broomes is the new principal at G.D. Rogers Garden Elementary in Bradenton. The school will have about 300 students for the 2010-2011 school year. Last year the school received the only F grade of any traditional public school in the region.
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By ROBERT NAPPER
Correspondent

Published: Saturday, August 21, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, August 20, 2010 at 9:38 p.m.

BRADENTON - Things could not have gone much worse at G.D. Rogers Garden Elementary School in Bradenton last year, when the new school received the only F grade by any traditional public school in the region.

Facts

Ann Broomes

Age: 45
Family: Husband, Darwin, four sons and a daughter, all
grown.
Education: Bachelor's in accounting, master's in
educational leadership from the University of South Florida.
Teaching experience: 7th-grade Haile Middle School
math teacher for five years.
Administrative experience: Three years as assistant
principal at Orange Ridge-Bullock Elementary School.
Teaching Philosophy: "As a
school system we deal with the whole child. These kids are good kids, they
all just need someone to care."

But the F grade, and test scores that showed only one in five third-graders were proficient in math, have not dampened the enthusiasm of the school's new principal, Ann Broomes.

Broomes faces the same challenges as any new principal -- from learning the names of teachers and staff, to building momentum for learning, to just discovering the lay-out of a new campus.

But Broomes arguably has the toughest task of any of the roughly 15 new principals who take the helm Monday at schools in Sarasota and Manatee counties.

Broomes must bring up dismal test scores, and prepare a staff that was almost completely turned over during a shake-up that came in the wake of the F grade.

But she also has to find a way to improve learning among a student population that is overwhelmingly poor and highly diverse at a school whose inaugural principal was ousted after just one year.

And yet, Broomes carries a grin from ear to ear while talking about those challenges, in part because she knows that with an F grade from the state last year, things can only improve.

"I am just so excited. There is just so much positive energy around me," she said. "And the district has given us so much support in everything we need."