With the 2021-2022 school year rapidly approaching, new Wilton 7-12 Principal Sue O’Donnell says, “I’m ready for kids. I’m ready to get going.”
Yet prior to the school year starting, she wants to get to know the community. Therefore, she’s planning two public events within the next week.
The first is a “coffee with the principal” event at the Wilton Café Friday, Aug. 6 from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. Next, she’s planning to host a Facebook Live event on Tuesday, Aug. 10 from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. The Facebook Live will be done on the high school’s Facebook page. “If there’s technical difficulties, we’ll post something on that page and let them know where to go,” O’Donnell added.
She said she’d never done coffee events, but being new to the position, she wants to hear from, and meet people in the community and school district.
“I’ve never done this before, but I’m not shy. We’re going to try this,” O’Donnell said. I want this to be somewhere people can stop in and feel no pressure to tell me about this community and school. What makes us the best? They are the experts,” she added with regard to the coffee event. “I think Wilton is a pretty cool town, I want to hear from them.”
O’Donnell will be the first female principal at Wilton since 1944, and fourth in history. There have been 19 documented principals of Wilton High School dating back to 1877. Sue lives south of Tipton with her husband Mike, a longtime veterinarian in Tipton.
O’Donnell’s deep familiarity with Wilton can be traced to her days as swim coach at Tipton High School, where Wilton had a sharing agreement for years, sending local swimmers to be a part of the Tiger swim team.
Her contract began July 1. She said she’s had a “great first month,” and has been meeting the administrative and teaching staff as much as she can along the way. “You can tell there’s a lot of pride in this community and in our staff,” she said.