Danielle Delgado

Principal, Brightwood Elementary School: Age 38

Photo by Bob Zemba, Simple Truth Imaging

As a young child, Danielle Delgado gave herself options.

“I always wanted to be either a teacher or famous. And I learned right away you can’t be famous for nothing, and I can’t sing, so teacher it was,” she said. “When was little, I’d line up my stuffed animals and make them my classroom, or my great-grandmother would be my student — she was 97 years old, and I’d send her to the principal’s office, which was the bathroom, and she’d play along with me, which was hysterical.”

As she got older, Delgado realized she had a real heart for education. Her career began with an internship and undergraduate work at Kensington International School in Springfield, and she gradually rose through the ranks to become principal at Brightwood Elementary School.

“Springfield Public Schools offered so many development opportunities for me. I became an instructional leadership specialist, then I went into administration and naturally progressed over time.”

Delgado is also committed to connecting Brightwood to the community in some intriguing ways. She co-founded the North End C3 Community Basketball League in collaboration with the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department, the Springfield C3 police unit, and the New North Citizens Council, and she also established after-school programs like a dance team and drama club, and piloted a program to distribute fresh produce to food-insecure families.

“By extending outside the school, we’re not just serving students, but the whole child. By making sure we are part of the community even beyond the school day, we’re all taking care of each other, supporting each other,” she explained. “We’re putting mentors in different parts of the children’s lives, and that’s incredibly special.”

Back at school, Delgado said, it’s a challenge, but a rewarding one, to make sure all 450 students and 68 staff members have what they need each day, and that the school culture remains a positive one for all. “By the end of the day, I’m exhausted, but it’s good. Thank goodness for good coffee,” she joked.

“The most rewarding thing is getting to see the excitement when students are learning and growing, and seeing the same excitement from teachers when they see their students learning, and as they grow and develop as educators — to see the joy and pride on their faces,” she added. “Educators are asked to do so much, and we can’t do it alone. Speaking as a teacher, that proverb, it takes a village to raise a child, is incredibly true.”

—Joseph Bednar