Mali RPCV Chris Winters named new housemaster named for Greenwich High School



After graduating cum laude from Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt., with a degree in political science, he spent two years in a small village in Mali as a volunteer for the Peace Corps. 'I remember one hot evening, as I was sitting in my hammock, wondering what to do, and education jumped out at me,' he said. 'My grandmother was a teacher, and I think it was in my blood a little bit.'

Mali RPCV Chris Winters named new housemaster named for Greenwich High School

New housemasters named for Greenwich High School
Norwalk Advocate
By Keach Hagey
May 27, 2006

I worked with children who overcame incredible odds to even get to school

Two district administrators with long-standing ties to Greenwich High School have been tapped to fill the school's two open housemaster positions.

Chris Winters, who graduated from the high school in 1981 and now serves as the district's English as a Second Language and Foreign Language coordinator, will replace retiring Folsom Housemaster Iris Anorga at the end of next month.

David Ross, a 32-year veteran of the district who serves as the high school's Social Studies program administrator, will take over the leadership of Cantor House on an interim basis until a search for a permanent housemaster begins next January. Current Housemaster Stacey Gross will become the principal of Western Middle School.

To help develop a more intimate school environment at the 2,800-student high school, each student is assigned to one of its five houses. Housemasters monitor student progress, supervise house activities and handle student discipline.

Winters, who also teaches one ESL class a day at Central Middle School, said he is looking forward to spending his days in the same halls he once haunted as a student. He was in Bella House, which at the time occupied the part of the building that now houses Folsom.

'For me, it's really about getting a little closer to kids,' said Winters, who has been an educator for 16 years. 'As a district coordinator, I travel to all the schools, and I get to see the impact of leadership on how students learn and teachers teach. I came to the conclusion that, at this point in my career, I wanted to get more into the building, to be at the school level where I might be able to make some real impact on student achievement.'

But the decision that led him back to his old stomping grounds occurred about as far from them as physically possible. After graduating cum laude from Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt., with a degree in political science, he spent two years in a small village in Mali as a volunteer for the Peace Corps.

'I remember one hot evening, as I was sitting in my hammock, wondering what to do, and education jumped out at me,' he said. 'My grandmother was a teacher, and I think it was in my blood a little bit.'

Upon his return, he entered a teaching fellowship program at Teachers College, Columbia University, earning a master's degree in ESL while teaching at Morris High School in the South Bronx.

'I worked with children who overcame incredible odds to even get to school,' he said. 'I had tremendous admiration for all that they did.'

He then went to work at a small alternative school for immigrant students in the Hunt's Point area of the borough before returning to Connecticut in 1998 to teach at Roxbury Elementary School in Stamford.

The next year, he was hired to oversee ESL programs in the Greenwich Public Schools, and soon took on the additional position of World Language coordinator. In that role, he led the reintroduction of foreign languages into Greenwich elementary schools, after many years of not teaching Spanish and French until middle school.

'It went away in most districts,' Winters said. 'I think that certain trends in education run hot and cold, but given the globalization that we are all experiencing, and access to other cultures and the way Greenwich itself has changed so much since I was a child -- there are so many different cultures here --I think most educators and parents believe that it's imperative that our children learn a second language, whether that be Spanish, French or now Mandarin Chinese.'

Winters, 43, speaks Spanish, French and the West African language called Bambara, which, though a little rusty, has an important function.

'I met my wife when I was in the Peace Corps, so she and I can speak it behind the kids' backs,' he said, referring to his children who are 9 and 11. The family lives in Stamford.

'I have had the opportunity to work with Chris on a number of district initiatives and have always been impressed with his knowledge, dedication and thoughtful pursuit of high standards for his students and for any program he is developing,' Superintendent Larry Leverett said in his announcement of the appointment.

Central Middle School Principal Jim Bulger called Winters 'an outstanding teacher' who was 'committed to making sure that our newest learners get going well in school with their language.'

Because Winters, who earned his sixth-year degree in administration from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield in 1998, was the only candidate who applied for the Cantor Housemaster position with the level of administrative experience required for the position. School officials said they decided to pick an interim housemaster for that slot when he was hired to lead Folsom House.

When this story was posted in June 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:




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