The new Middletown High School principal is urging staff and students to work together to create a more friendly environment at the school. Carmela Cotter has been serving the district for 20 years and she wants to create a stronger sense of family amongst the teachers and students.

When she took the role of principal, she says she felt that there was a separation amongst the students and staff.  She says, “I think that we had in some regard become kind of divided in approaches. We were so busy setting up different types of programs to help kids that we ended up becoming a bit divided in our focus, and I think this is the time to pull us all back together again,”

She has always been a firm believer in Middie Pride and she wants to bring back that feeling of family and community to the school.  Cotter explains, “It’s four years of not just academic development, but also of social and emotional development, and a chance to grow up in a really supportive and positive family-like environment. I think the Middletown Middies have always been known for that. I’m just trying to heighten that awareness,”...“What we’re trying to do is relate all back to Middie pride and that sense of family, and I think that is tremendously positive for kids. Kids are learning how to advocate for themselves in a really socially acceptable and positive way,”