First Assistant Principal Appointed At South Norwalk Elementary School

NORWALK, CT — The Board of Education recently appointed Francheska Rodriguez as the first assistant principal for South Norwalk Elementary School.

According to a news release provided by Norwalk Public Schools, she will form an administrative team with Principal Randall Austin, who took the lead at South Norwalk Elementary School at the start of the 2024-2025 school year.

Rodriguez currently serves as the assistant education administrator for multilingual learners for Norwalk Public Schools. She will start her new position at South Norwalk in mid-January, according to the district.

Together, Austin and Rodriguez will transition the school into its new home on Meadow Street Extension in the fall of 2025. South Norwalk Elementary School is the first neighborhood school for the South Norwalk community in over 40 years, according to the district.

In her current position, Rodriguez provides districtwide leadership for K-12 MLL instructional, curricular and professional development initiatives. She oversees data collection and analysis for planning, scheduling and leads in the use of language proficiency data with state level assessment and achievement data to improve the overall achievement of MLL students, according to the district.

Prior to her arrival in Norwalk, Rodriguez served as a bilingual/ENL compliance coordinator at Public School/Middle School 95 in the Bronx, N.Y., where she coordinated screening for language support program placement and gathered and maintained all data required for city, state and federal reports.

She began her teaching career at Public School/Middle School 95 in 2008. She served as a bilingual teacher for second and third grades over eight years, according to the district.

Rodriguez earned her bachelor of arts in liberal arts from Boricua College. She then earned a master's degree in bilingual childhood education from Hunter College and most recently earned a master's degree in school building leader from Fordham University.

Rodriguez is also a Fortuny R. Melina and Dora D. Melina Endowed Scholarship recipient and a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, according to the district.