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01/18/2023 08:30 AMThe first issue is pronunciation. It is not the most important, but once settled, the story can move on to Carolyn Gbunblee’s accomplishments.
Here’s what you need to know about the name Gbunblee: Do not pronounce the first G or the second B.
What you get once you do that is a name pronounced Bunlee.
Sometimes Carolyn has been called Grumbly and she has even created a slide presentation to make pronunciation easier.
Pronunciation was not an issue in the award that Carolyn, associate principal at Valley Regional High School (VRHS), has just received. The Connecticut Association of Schools has just named her Assistant High School Principal of the Year. (While VRHS calls Carolyn’s position associate principal, VRHS principal Mike Barile says “there is no difference between assistant and associate.”)
Barile nominated Carolyn for the award. He says Carolyn’s leadership, which he described as collaborative and inclusive, was important in the New England Association of Schools and Colleges’ accreditation and authorization as an International Baccalaureate World School.
“Carolyn’s nature is to empower others to reach their goals. She is invested in each and everyone’s success,” he noted. “I could not ask for a better partner.”
Once Carolyn was chosen as a finalist for Assistant High School Principal of the Year through a written application process, there was a site visit by the selection committee including meetings with parents, teachers, students, and staff.
“That’s what makes me feel proud, that all the stakeholders were involved,” Carolyn says.
At VRHS, Carolyn’s responsibilities range from discipline and relationship with faculty and staff to equity issues, not only in terms of racial, economic, and cultural differences but also biases as diverse as discrimination against those served by special education or differences in the ways male and female students are treated.
She was responsible for overseeing the launch of a new school-day schedule, moving from four one-and-a-half-hour class periods every day to a new configuration with seven shorter class periods on three days, as well as adaptions the two days which still had longer classes.
Carolyn is not the only member of her family with ties to Valley Regional. Her grandfather, Robert Hale, Sr., graduated from the first class to attend the school after the high schools in Essex, Chester, and Deep River merged.
And now her husband, Hill Gbunblee, is the new coach of the VRHS football team, after having served some five years as an assistant. The team combines players from Valley and Lyme-Old Lyme High School. Hill Gbunblee, who was born in Liberia and came to the United States with his parents when he was four years old, is the first Black coach of the football team.
On their first date, Carolyn explained a non-negotiable aspect of any relationship: she would not move from Clinton where she had lived her entire life. And they have not. But there have been some changes. Hill, who was an insurance adjustor when they met, has switched careers and is now a special education teacher at Essex Elementary School.
“We converted him,” Carolyn explains.
The couple, now married eight years, have three young children, ages 7, 5, and 2 1/2.
“I wish there were more peers that looked like them; that’s part of my passion for equity,” Carolyn says.
Like the biology teacher she once was, Carolyn has taken a scientific approach to talking about race with her children. She explains their skin has more melanin which makes it more resistant to harm from the sun. Sometimes, Carolyn says, the children will ask her if she feels bad that she doesn’t have more melanin.
Carolyn has had an advantage besides good daycare as she combines career and family. She lives next door to her parents who can lend a hand, and she says Hill does most of the cooking, except during football season.
Outside of school and family activities, Carolyn loves to craft and quilt, but admits with three small children there is not much time for it. She likes photography and took the pictures for a friend’s Christmas card. She also sews—sometimes dresses for herself, including one very important one: She made her own wedding dress.
Educational leadership is a family calling for Carolyn. Her father Robert Hale was the principal of Westbrook High School. Her mother Jill Hale was principal of an elementary school in Guilford.
After graduating from the University of Connecticut, Carolyn started her own career teaching at Nathan Hale-Ray High School in Moodus. Her name, Carolyn Hale, was easier to pronounce then but, since it was the same as the school name, it still caused some confusion.
Carolyn was 30 and had just received her doctorate in education when she started at VRHS, her first position as an assistant principal. She says she felt ready for the new responsibilities. She had taken a leadership position in Hale-Ray’s school accreditation process and was the leader of its science department.
She prepared well for the interview process at VRHS.
“I had done the research about the district before the job interview, and Hale-Ray had similar demographics,” she says. “And they could see how passionate I was about education.”
She remains passionate about both education and her position.
“It’s different every day,” she says. “That’s the really good part. On a given day, anything can happen.”