It’s about two weeks before the start of school and Britton Middle School’s new principal, Nanette Donahue, is already on campus, getting acquainted with the staff and faculty that she will lead into the 2018-19 school term.
Her positivity about what lies ahead could be infectious around the aging middle school campus, where construction got underway this summer and will be ongoing in various phases for the next 2 and a half years.
Still, Donahue who came from Evergreen Valley School District in East San Jose, where she was a principal the last three of her five years there, can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
“The construction is symbolic of the work we re doing in middle school. It s such a transition period for a kid’s life like the school is going through this transition with a new campus coming,” said Donahue, as she sat in the Britton principal’s office July 30. “Teachers can teach under trees. It’s the people who work here that make the biggest difference.”
A new $50 million campus at 80 W. Central Ave., funded through Measure G bond funds, will go a long way in transforming the physical campus, one of the oldest in the Morgan Hill Unified School District.
“We are going through a transformation, both inward and outward,” said Donahue, who wants to rejuvenate the school community, recently scarred by a melee between police, students and festival-goers at the Britton Carnival. “That’s the one story being told about Britton, but that doesn’t define us.”
New staff brings new energy
Along with many returning teachers and support staff, Donahue is not the only newbie to Britton for the new year. The school has two new front office staff, a new student supervisor, two new English teachers, a new sixth grade teacher and two new special education aides.
Donahue, who also worked as a teacher in Cupertino for 15 years, said her family moved to Gilroy four years ago and she immediately fell in love with the small town, close-knit South County community. With two school-age children, she sought out a similar environment for her administrative career and set her sights on Morgan Hill.
“That was the thing I really wanted also, so I started actively looking in Morgan Hill, another small town where I can come in and really make a change in the community,” said Donahue, who enjoys middle school students most of all. They’re exciting. They’re awkward. They’re curious. They’re confused about life. It’s that time of transition I m really drawn to.”
Donahue, who was briefly introduced along with new Paradise Valley Elementary School principal Julie Page at a school board meeting in June, has been making the rounds with staff as they arrive on campus, and she’s impressed so far.
“I m coming into a community of strong educators already. I’ve had the opportunity to work with staff, and they are just so connected to the Britton students and community,” Donahue said. “We are going to continue to grow great programs here. I have a clear belief that our job is for every single student to be academically challenged and be at grade level.”
Donahue can’t wait to get started with sixth grade orientation, called Bobcat Bonanza, scheduled from 9am to 1pm Aug. 9 in the Britton gymnasium; an Aug. 14 date for school-wide distribution of class schedules from noon to 4pm as well as sixth grade parent orientation beginning at 6pm; and a 9am Aug. 17 coffee with the principal event.
 “I’m here to serve and ensure that we have a school that meets the needs of the students first and of the community,” said Donahue, whose husband is a sergeant with the San Jose Police Department. “It’s so powerful when we figure out where kids are, meet them where they are and take them on a journey with us.”
That journey begins with the first day of school Aug. 16.
We are going through a transformation, both inward and outward.
