- November 26, 2024
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John Fanelli moved to Flagler County with his family in 1987, when he enrolled as a third-grade-student at Wadsworth Elementary School — the school’s inaugural year. Twenty-six years later, he is sitting behind a desk, in the principal’s chair.
Fanelli made his rounds through Flagler County, attending what was Belle Terre Middle School at the time, when Buddy Taylor was acting principal, and then Flagler Palm Coast High School, graduating in 1997. From there, he attended Daytona Beach Community College for two years before moving on to the University of Central Florida on a scholarship.
His teaching career began at Old Kings Elementary School in 2001. For four years, he transferred between third-, fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms.
Knowing he wanted to eventually end up in administration, Fanelli, in his third year of teaching, returned to the classroom, but this time as a student. He enrolled at Stetson University to complete his master’s degree in educational leadership.
Because Flagler was a smaller county and provided fewer administrative opportunities, Fanelli took a short detour to Volusia County, where he taught one year at Tomoka Elementary School, in Ormond Beach, before becoming an assistant principal at Pierson Elementary School for three years. He transferred to become an assistant principal at Discovery Elementary School, in Deltona, before finally making his way back to Flagler County in January 2011, when he was hired as the assistant principal of curriculum and instruction under Robin Dupont.
This year, when Dupont was asked to move to Old Kings for the start of the 2013-14 school year, Fanelli was asked to take over as principal at Wadsworth.
“It’s really something special, especially because I attended this school as a child,” Fanelli said. “It makes it even more special to me to be able to give back to the school that I once attended.”
The game plan
As a young principal, Fanelli, 34, has big plans for his first year. The biggest plan he is embarking on is the integration of curriculum within subjects. This would allow special-area teachers to teach grade-level standards.
“Looking at the budget cuts, it’s been really tough — we have cut back the supply money so that we really have to ration out the supplies, limit copy paper, and because of that, after-school programs have been cut. We used to have science and technology clubs,” Fanelli said. “We have to look more to what we have and since we have those teachers who are certified in elementary education, we should be utilizing them to teach core subjects. That’s an extra 45 minutes a day that we can be using to teach our students in hands-on ways.”
Another one of Fanelli’s integrations will be physical education teacher Stephanie Isaac, who will be teaching human body systems, a fifth-grade core standard, as part of her special-area class. Isaac, who also has a teaching certification in anatomy and physiology, will work with the other fifth-grade teachers to teach the core standard in a hands-on way during her physical education rotation.
“We need to utilize the time that we have with the students as best as possible,” Fanelli said. “With the demands that are put on them with common core and state testing, we don’t have a minute to lose. We are constantly looking at our resources of time and money and how can we do more or do different — utilize in more efficient ways — to get the biggest bang for our buck.”
As a new principal at a high-performing school, Fanelli said he wants to continue to enhance the students’ learning experience. But, he said, he must be careful about not putting too much more on the teachers and students.
“Thinking about ways to increase achievement, we have to constantly keep moving forward and coming up with creative ideas to help the kids do better,” he said.
