Episode 98: Meet Brookanne Dalby, Franklin Elementary Principal

19 liepos, 2025 /
Spenceris Tuinei /

Sup su "Sup

00:00 / 19:22

Wendy Dau: Welcome everyone to this week’s episode of What’s Up With the Sup. I am here with Brook Dalby, who is the new principal at Franklin Elementary. So welcome.

Brook Dalby: Hi! Thanks for having me.

Wendy Dau: As you’re moving into Franklin, we wanna just talk a little bit about like what you’re excited about, just how people get to know you, maybe a little bit. Because you’ve been on the podcast before, but maybe individuals that are part of the Franklin community didn’t listen to that podcast, but they might listen to this one– so just start by telling us a little bit of your background in education and kind of what your expertise is and what you’re passionate about.

’cause equity’s a big deal to you.

Brook Dalby: Mm-hmm.

Wendy Dau: And I think that would be a very important thing for the Franklin community to hear.

Brook Dalby: Okay. So I started teaching up in Ogden. I taught English and then I moved to Granger High School in West Valley, and taught there for 10 years before making my way down here to Provo.

So I’m good friends with Jamie Leite over at Lakeview.

Wendy Dau: Taip.

Brook Dalby: And she was like, Provo’s the best, so you have to come down and try it.

Wendy Dau: She, she suckered you in. Love it.

Brook Dalby: She convinced me. So I applied and got the job at Centennial, but my time in Ogden and West Valley, I think, has been really influential for me and has made me who I am as an educator.

I’ve always taught ESL.

Wendy Dau: : Gerai.

Brook Dalby: And taught in schools that are very diverse and more highly impacted maybe than other schools. So that’s my wheelhouse. That’s what I love. That’s the students I love to work with, the communities I love to work with. And I went into administration to continue working particularly with multilingual students and working with ESL programs and things.

And so coming down to Centennial, they have a strong program, and then moving over to Franklin is, I think, an even bigger group of those students and–

Wendy Dau: Yeah, for sure.

Brook Dalby: So I’m really excited to get kind of back to my roots of being an educator and–

Wendy Dau: Tai nuostabu.

Brook Dalby: Yeah.

Wendy Dau: We’re excited to have you at Franklin. I’m super excited.

Tell us a little bit about unique strengths that the Franklin community has. ‘Cause you’ve already been to some PTA meetings and some school community council meetings. So just talk about what your interactions have been so far.

Brook Dalby: Yeah, the culture and community are fantastic. Yeah. They are so involved. It’s so strong. You know, there’s a lot of assumptions out there about schools that are more diverse, or smaller schools, and things that parents aren’t involved. And that is unfortunately a common occurrence where getting parent involvement can be difficult.

And the schools I’ve worked in, that was kind of the case. But Franklin, it is not like that. No, it is such a community. There’s a really strong partnership and relationship between the school and the community. PTA is huge.

Wendy Dau: Taip.

Brook Dalby: And they’re amazing. Every meeting I’ve been in, they’ve been so great and welcoming and supportive.

They show up for Franklin. They love Franklin.

Wendy Dau: Taip.

Brook Dalby: There’s just so much passion. So that’s the biggest thing I’ve noticed is everybody loves Franklin. The teachers love the students, they love the community they work in, and that has been really fun to see.

Wendy Dau: Yeah, there’s a really great vibe there. When I went over the to Franklin for their field day, just to see how many parents were just–

they took it all off the plate of the teachers. Like I was like, this is amazing. So the teachers didn’t have to stress about it, but they just created some really fun opportunities and activities for the kids. And they’re really all in.

Brook Dalby: They are. Yeah.

Wendy Dau: What are some of the things that you’ve noticed are challenges that Franklin has that might be typical for a lot of highly impacted schools, and why that actually makes you excited to be a leader of Franklin?

Brook Dalby: Yeah. I think some of the challenges are how many multilingual students we have.

Wendy Dau: Taip.

Brook Dalby: Which is such a huge benefit. It’s so cool. Yes, and it’s such a great skill. I wish I was more fluent in a second language than I am, so it’s a really great thing, but it can also lead to some challenges with literacy and things like that.

Wendy Dau: Teisingai.

Brook Dalby: And so when students are learning two languages, they’ve got twice as much literacy to learn, right?

Wendy Dau: Teisingai.

Brook Dalby: And letter sounds and things like that. And so we have that as a challenge. And then you have students who are new to the country and moving in, and at various levels. And so within one classroom, you’ve got so many different levels of students that you’re trying to reach–

Wendy Dau: Taip.

Brook Dalby: In one place, which can be difficult. And in some ways, I think how the size of the school is a challenge that you might not think of. In some ways it’s a benefit, but bigger teams of teachers are more–

Wendy Dau: Tai geras pastebėjimas.

Brook Dalby: More resources and more minds I guess, to bring to the table and things. But the teachers we have are really great.

I think that’s kind of the biggest challenge, I guess.

Wendy Dau: Yeah, I think I, you’re right. You know–

Brook Dalby: Just that the– meeting students where they are, but also challenging them, and getting them to be at or above grade level while filling in in areas where they need it. Doing that can be really hard on a grand scale. So.

Wendy Dau: That’s right. So just also providing the support for the teachers–

Brook Dalby: Yeah.

Wendy Dau: And making sure they know what to do in particular.

Brook Dalby: Yeah, the time.

Wendy Dau: Yeah, the time.

Brook Dalby: Time to do all of that. Yeah, no question. And ways to do both. And it can be easy to fall into meeting students where they are and forgetting the higher level as well.

Wendy Dau: Teisingai.

Brook Dalby: And finding a way to do both at the same time can be– tricky.

Wendy Dau: Can be tricky. Yeah. But it’s gonna be important.

You have worked with your building leadership team on like a vision, and a mission, and starting to just really make sure that people are understanding what Franklin’s all about.

Talk a little bit about that process and where you guys landed on that. ‘Cause I think it’s really exciting.

Brook Dalby: Yeah. That was kind of the first thing we knew we needed to do is have a really clear mission, and vision, and values, and just figure out who we are at Franklin, who we want to be–

Wendy Dau: Mm-hmm.

Brook Dalby: At Franklin. And just be very explicit about that. So everybody had a guidepost.

Wendy Dau: Yeah, right.

Brook Dalby: So this summer we have worked as a leadership team to create all of that. So they’ve gone through a lot of data and information about what our students need, what our community values, what the faculty values, things like that.

And then we came together and created a vision statement, a mission statement, and values that go along with that. And then we started building our PBIS system, so our expectations and things for every part of the building are being tweaked just a little bit. Lance has done great work with setting all of that up, and we’re just pulling from the work that he and Jason did and then adding to it with some of the new stuff our leadership team has put together.

So it was really exciting. In fact, there were like even some tears. People got emotional ’cause they’re really excited about it.

Wendy Dau: So, oh, I love that. I love the excitement. That’s amazing. You’re also taking a group of teachers to a Professional Learning Communities conference. So talk a little bit about that and what you’re hoping to gain from that, and how that helps build that community at Franklin.

Brook Dalby: Yeah, so I am a huge believer in the PLC process when it’s done right and done effectively, and I wanted to be able to start with everybody on the same page and the same understanding of my Why, and why I make the decisions I make in regards to collaboration, and data, and assessment, and all of that. I’m also a really big fan, if you can call it that,

in the education world– it’s kind of geeky, I guess, to have a, someone I, I am like fangirling over– but Mike Mattos, I think–

Wendy Dau: Oh yeah, so no question.

Brook Dalby: He is one of the first presenters I saw as a teacher, and listening to him completely changed my instruction, and who I was as a teacher, and the outlook I had and the way I saw my job.

Wendy Dau: Mm-hmm.

Brook Dalby: It helped me really gain that perspective of it’s about learning, not about teaching, and that there’s a difference, and what that difference is.

And so we are going out to the solution tree, PLC at work conference, made sure we chose one that Mike Mattos was at.

Wendy Dau: Oh, that was smart.

Brook Dalby: Yeah. Really just to get us all on the same page.

Wendy Dau: Taip.

Brook Dalby: And then there’s a lot of team time involved. Yeah. So it also will bring the entire faculty together so that, well, most of them so that we can work together, and plan for next school year, and get things going before the students show up.

And then traveling just builds relationships.

Wendy Dau: It does. It really does.

Brook Dalby: So it’s going to a conference and experiencing this all together helps everybody get to know each other, where we have a lot of new people and it just builds those bonds that get you through the school year.

Wendy Dau: Taip.

Brook Dalby: You get to know people as, as people.

Wendy Dau: Taip.

Brook Dalby: And not just as this colleague or this individual that teaches second grade, or whatever, right down the hall.

Wendy Dau: Yeah. The person down the hall person next door or whatever.

Tell us a little bit more about how Mike Mattos changed you as a teacher. I’d love for you to just kind of go down that rabbit hole just a little bit.

Brook Dalby: Yeah.

Wendy Dau: And tell us a little bit about how that changed your perspective of students, and what they are able to do, and what they’re capable of.

Brook Dalby: Yeah, so there’s kind of a couple directions with it. First, I guess– just that focus on learning and not teaching. It’s, you know, I was a high school teacher, I know you were too. So I say all of this with love. It’s really– I love my high, high school colleagues, but high school teachers can also be– they love their curriculum– yeah, a whole lot. And we get really passionate about things, curriculum based and things like that.

So it was frequently like, I’m teaching this. Why aren’t the students getting it? Why aren’t learning it?

Wendy Dau: Taip.

Brook Dalby: And it’s really easy to make excuses of, well, if they would try harder, if they were motivated, if they cared, things like that.

And so when I heard from Mike Mattos, he shares a story, I believe it’s about his sister and some of the hardships she went through. But long story short, he essentially was like, if you as a high school teacher had a student who failed your class and dropped out of high school, and then you saw them a few years after school, you know, on the streets somewhere when you encountered that student, do you really wanna be the teacher that’s like, I told you so.

I told you that if you didn’t care about high school–

Wendy Dau: Oh wow–

Brook Dalby: you wouldn’t have much of a life, you know, and that things wouldn’t go well for you. Or would you rather be the teacher that a successful student comes up to and like hugs and is like, thank you so much for helping me succeed.

Yeah. And so it’s that kind of stuff of– what do we really want in the long run? And then he is very blunt and he’s like, if failing students helped them, then they wouldn’t be failing anymore.

Wendy Dau: Teisingai.

Brook Dalby: But they are– they’re still failing.

Wendy Dau: Teisingai.

Brook Dalby: ‘ Cause we frequently hear things like we’re teaching them responsibility and things like that.

Wendy Dau: Yeah, that’s true.

Brook Dalby: And he’s like, but are we.

Wendy Dau: Teisingai.

Brook Dalby: Because they’re not actually getting more responsible because they got a zero. So that changed my perspective a lot.

And then he also just talks a lot about that importance of filling in gaps while also keeping expectations high.

Wendy Dau: Taip.

Brook Dalby: And sometimes I think we love students and in trying to do right by them, we actually cause more harm by lowering our expectations.

And we think we’re doing it out of love and because we are like, well, we know they’re facing X, Y, Z challenges and things, or they’re coming to us at this level, and so it’s good intent, but then they miss out on the grade level content and they just continue to be behind. And that gap just grows, gets bigger.

Wendy Dau: Yes. And it stays the same.

Brook Dalby: And to close that achievement gap or opportunity gap, we have to do both at the same time. And he really, really pushes that. And he uses a lot of facts about how important education is and the lifelong impact that has on students on our society. And who they are as members of our society after high school.

Wendy Dau: Oh, that’s awesome. It’s so, it’s so perfect. It fits so well. I love it.

What do you want the students of Franklin to know as they’re thinking about, oh my gosh, I have a new principal coming in in August. What would you like to share with them, and just let them know?

Brook Dalby: It’s tricky, because it’s elementary and I think elementary students already love the principal.

Wendy Dau: Yeah, they do like they do like the principal, most of them. Yes they do.

Brook Dalby: There’s just kind of this natural, like– you’re cool because you’re the principal, which I’m excited about. But just reminding everybody that the principal is not scary.

Wendy Dau: Teisingai.

Brook Dalby: That coming to the office can happen for good reasons, for positive things. Yeah. It’s not just when people are in trouble, that I like to be an open book and approachable and have conversations. And so if there are questions, or concerns, or achievements, they wanna share things they’re worried about. Like, I’m very open to having students around and having parents or community members involved in reaching out.

And so I try to live by that of if you have a question or you have a concern, let me know. I can’t–

Wendy Dau: Can’t fix it– what I don’t–

Brook Dalby: if you don’t know about it. Yeah, yeah, that’s right. And we really are a team and we have to be able to all work on that same team. So I agree. And just that I’m really excited to be at Franklin in the community. I’m excited.

Wendy Dau: I’m excited to have you at Franklin. I think what’s so fun is when you go into elementary schools and you find out that kids really like to share like about everything that’s taking place and you get– I am– it, you’re gonna love it. It’ll be awesome. It’ll be amazing. You’ll get lots of hugs and I don’t know, elementary schools are fantastic that way.

What are your hopes for Franklin, like as you’re going in, what would be your goals for the students as you guys are planning for the year, what are your goals?

Brook Dalby: Yeah, I would love for it to be a safe space where everybody loves to be, yes. You know, they want to be at school, or they want to work at Franklin or visit Franklin, or whatever it is, if their students or employees or parents.

But so first and foremost, it just needs to be a place, and I think that’s already–

Wendy Dau: Yeah, there, right?

Brook Dalby: That piece already exists, but continue that and then have those high expectations and a growth mindset. Students believing in themselves, knowing that they can reach these high expectations.

Wendy Dau: Taip.

Brook Dalby: That they can be at an above grade level. They can increase their reading abilities and things like that. And I love to have students involved in setting goals and tracking their own learning. And so I would love to see students knowing where they’re at and where they’re going as well as the teachers and really digging into goal setting and things like that.

So I guess long term loving school, loving to be there, and also hitting some high achievement and growth. Growth is gonna be one of our biggest goals.

Wendy Dau: Yeah. That definitely has to be the focus.

And what’s interesting is I think you’ve done that at Centennial where you’ve had students in specific classes and with teachers that have set goals with those kids.

Brook Dalby: Mm-hmm.

Wendy Dau: And they know where they are and they know. I think it’s so powerful when a kid knows, well, this is what I need to do to actually get there, and this is how my teacher is helping me do that. That’s so amazing to watch kids talk about that. So.

What is something that you hope for your teachers at Franklin that you’re like, as we’re going into this year, this is what I want you to feel and know?

Brook Dalby: Similar– that I’m not scary.

Wendy Dau: Yeah, you’re definitely not.

Brook Dalby: You know, it’s just big changes cause a lot of emotion and things, so I would hope for an open mind, I guess I, I guess giving me a chance.

Wendy Dau: Taip.

Brook Dalby: And my team, and they know Lance, but Jeanette will be new to a lot of them and Emily and just giving us a chance, getting to know us, knowing that things are going to take time.

Wendy Dau: Taip.

Brook Dalby: Change doesn’t hit right away.

Wendy Dau: Teisingai, teisingai.

Brook Dalby: And we aren’t gonna to achieve our goals right away. So some patience, open-mindedness.

But then I would also hope that teachers know that they’re supported and that we are in it together. You know? Yeah? All students are our students and we help everybody, no matter what grade level or anything like that, and that I really, truly believe in that and want any school that I’m in to be a place people love to work.

And teaching is hard.

Wendy Dau: Taip,

Brook Dalby: It is hard no matter what grade level or subject area or school you are in. It is a really challenging profession and also very important.

And if you don’t love coming and doing it every day, it can be really miserable. That’s true for everybody, right–

Wendy Dau: that’s right.

Brook Dalby: Us and our students. So just hoping that I can show them that and build that trust, and that it can be a great place– it already is– so that we can continue having it be a great place to show up and do hard work every day.

Wendy Dau: Yeah. I’m excited for Franklin and for the start of the school year and all the good things that you already have in place. So thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us.

Brook Dalby: Of course.

Wendy Dau: Is there anything else that you wanna share?

Brook Dalby: My team coming with me is awesome. I know it’s–

Wendy Dau: Yeah, they are.

Brook Dalby: It’s just a lot of new people and I think–

Wendy Dau: Yeah, they rock stars, right? Rock stars.

Brook Dalby: And Shauna was great ,and Emily’s gonna be great. And I know some people are just nervous, ’cause they don’t know what that environment’s gonna be like. But I think people are gonna really love the team. I think Emily’s got some really fun ideas up their sleeve for the front office and there’s just good things and so…

I don’t know, I can’t like talk them up enough. I love them so much. You called ’em rock stars. It’s so true. Jeanette is quiet but brilliant.

Wendy Dau: O taip.

Brook Dalby: You don’t always see her or hear from her, but behind the scenes she’s so smart. She knows so much and has a really strong background in a lot of areas, so just brag, about them and yeah, build some trust in in them, and how awesome everybody’s gonna be.

Wendy Dau: That’s gonna be great. I’m excited.

Brook Dalby: Thank you so much.

Wendy Dau: I hope everybody enjoys the rest of their summer, and I hope you do as well.

Brook Dalby: Thanks.

Wendy Dau: And then we’ll see you all in August. Perfect. Woohoo.

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