NEW BEDFORD — She may have grown up cheering on Durfee High, but Fall River native Joyce Cardoza is raising her daughter on the opposite side of her alma mater's historic football rivalry with New Bedford High.
"She loves it. She watches the New Bedford cheerleaders and copies them," said Cardoza, who returned from Christmas break as new principal of NBHS.
"The red-and-white has taken hold."
Cardoza's mid-winter move into the principal role is in preparation for the impending spring retirement of now-former NBHS Principal Bernadette Coelho. Coelho is set to finish out the school year as Curriculum Data and Assessment Manager for Enrichment and Accelerated Programs. Now-former Grade 11 Assistant Principal Jeffrey Longo has replaced Cardoza as new associate principal.
Cardoza: Working with high schoolers is 'such a gift'
Before segueing into education, Cardoza, a Durfee class of 2000 graduate, began a professional career in clinical social work, working closely with at-risk adolescents, often in school settings. Cardoza's exposure to schools would eventually pull her further in their direction, first as a school counselor and night school teacher at Durfee before running the district's English as a second language program for grades 6-12, then becoming principal of an alternative middle school.
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Cardoza says a yearning to work at the high school level once again led her to take an administrative role at NBHS in 2016, eventually moving up to associate principal.
"I felt like that's really my passion — to see students from that stage in 9th grade, and then graduation and post secondary to see what they become," Cardoza said. "I think that’s such a gift that we get to see at this level."
Cardoza added that New Bedford's demographics also factored into her move to NBPS, as she wished to continue using her trilingual abilities to help families.
Perfect timing
Cardoza says she's especially excited to be assuming the principal position at this particular time, citing a "renewed sense of energy" in the building. She credits this atmosphere to a number of factors, among them: a new central administration, students and staff increasingly engaging in dialogue, and programming that's continually grown more robust.
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"If you take advantage of what this comprehensive high school has to offer, you really can come out on top of the world," Cardoza said.
Longo excited to expand building-wide
When asked what he likes about working at New Bedford High, Jeffrey Longo admits: "I'm a little biased."
The NBHS class of 2004 grad has a relationship with New Bedford Public Schools that predates even his earliest days as a student, being the son of former longtime NBPS Superintendent Michael Longo.
"I sort of grew up in education," Jeffrey Longo said. "Going to events, games, plays — that was kind of what we'd do as a family for fun."
But a lifetime of memories wasn't the sole motivation behind his career choice, Jeffrey Longo says.
"In college, when I decided to pivot to education, it was actually because of my experience being a substitute teacher here during my winter break," Jeffrey Longo said. He would go on to start his career as a science teacher at NBHS in 2008 before becoming an assistant principal in 2014.
'Expanding my reach'
Jeffrey Longo says one of the things he's most excited about relative to his new role is its nature as a building-wide position rather than being grade level-based.
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"I look at it as just expanding my reach to be able to drive the work we're doing around student achievement," he said, noting the diversity and quality of programming found at NBHS as being among what he finds favorable about working there.
Like Cardoza, Jeffrey Longo says he places great importance on his preference to work specifically at the high school level, as he too takes pleasure in seeing students' life trajectories take shape during those pivotal four years.
"When students come to us at 9th grade, they don't necessarily know what they want to do; and then they leave in 12th grade with this plan, this vision," he said, noting having enjoyed a former student's recent visit. "We're preparing the future."
NBHS to finish year with new principal, associate principal - SouthCoastToday.com
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