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Robles-Rivas: "You don't have to lose your identity to be successful."
Thirty three years ago, Evelyn Robles-Rivas moved to Connecticut from Puerto Rico to find a career despite not knowing how to speak English.
Now, the former Worthington Hooker School principal is returning to New Haven to lead the public school district’s work supporting multilingual learners.
The New Haven Public Schools’ (NHPS) Board of Education approved the hire of Robles-Rivas Monday afternoon during its hybrid Board meeting held in-person at Ross Woodward School and online via Zoom.
Superintendent Madeline Negrón tapped Robles-Rivas to step into the role of NHPS director of multilingual learners programs starting July 1. That role is currently filled by Pedro Mendia-Landa, who plans to retire at the end of this school year after 32 years of service.
Robles-Rivas currently works as the supervisor of languages and community partnership for the Meriden Public Schools district.
Negrón said that Robles-Rivas rose to the top out of seven applicants for this NHPS job.
Board member Ed Joyner described the recommendation as a “five-star appointment” and Mayor Justin Elicker described Robles-Rivas as hard working and kind.
Robles-Rivas’ hire was approved unanimously by the full Board Monday. Her salary will start at $180,605.
Before arriving in Meriden, Robles-Rivas was the principal of Truman School for two years then a co-principal and principal at Worthington Hooker for 12 years.
During her work at Hooker, Robles-Rivas coached teachers and developed a comprehensive school development plan to reduce the school’s achievement gap at the time from 18 percent to 2 percent. For this, her team received a National Blue Ribbon Schools distinction in 2015.
“I’m really excited and honored to return to my New Haven family,” she said.
During remarks after her appointment’s approval, Robles-Rivas recalled her own experience learning to speak English as a University of Connecticut student.
While studying at UCONN, Robles-Rivas worked jobs at Walgreens and JC Penny to practice speaking English. She also had a background as an accountant, and originally came to Connecticut for a bookkeeping job, but ended up shifting gears in 1994 and worked as a bilingual math teacher in Waterbury for 10 years.
“I know the struggle,” she said.
She said she aims to support schools in their work helping multilingual learners to be both academically and linguistically proficient.
She concluded that she hopes to teach students that “you don’t have to lose your identity to be successful.”
Robles-Rivas with family at Monday's Board meeting.
Robles-Rivas is an excellent pick for this important position.
After seeing this article, I went to the public meetings page to see what else happened at this Monday's meeting. Boy, that new app they bought (How much did it cost?) really hides a lot of the information we used to be able to access on the website.