Meet Jenkintown’s new superintendent, whose background ranges from Sixers reporter to Russian translator
A first-generation Ukrainian American who learned the joy of reading from a teacher, ex-radio reporter Brea D'Angelo is taking over this year as chief communicator for tight-knit Jenkintown's schools.
After the sudden departure of Jenkintown’s longtime superintendent in April, the school district’s new CEO started work this month, and she already has plans.
“I’m really excited once the year starts to really dive in and go into classrooms,” Brea D’Angelo said last week, “and get the narrative out to the community of the incredible things that are happening. … I’m really looking forward to being the communicator of those types of things.”
D’Angelo used to be a professional communicator: She went to college for TV and radio and then took a reporting job covering the Sixers at WBCB in Levittown.
“I had the opportunity to go into the locker room and interview players,” D’Angelo said. “What I started realizing was that I wasn’t making a difference.”
From Sixers to secondary education
She switched from communications to education, starting as a special education assistant in the Lower Moreland Township School District and spending seven years as a secondary school teacher there before working her way up as an administrator in the Hatboro-Horsham School District, where she spent more than 12 years and still lives with her husband and teenage daughter.
D’Angelo chose to teach English — a subject she came to love as a reluctant reader who learned the joy of books from a teacher when she was about 15.
“[She] really took an interest and was like, ‘You just haven’t found the right thing to read yet,’” D’Angelo said, and helped her find early favorites, such as Of Mice and Men. “You want teachers to be that for someone.”
Her plans as superintendent include a return to publishing, of sorts.
“I’m going to do a newsletter that comes out monthly, from me,” D’Angelo said. “I just want our story to get out there and to show what an incredible place we really are.”
Jenkintown finds comms pro to replace superintendent
Jenkintown’s last superintendent, Jill Takacs, had announced her retirement for Aug. 31 this year before leaving early, in April, for an administrator job in New Jersey.
Takacs’ departure came after an email from a retiring principal leaked to the public last fall that outlined concerns with Takacs’ management style, including a ”lack of transparency,” outgoing Jenkintown Elementary principal Christopher Jahnke wrote. Takacs was on leave shortly afterward.
But some locals said they had already had concerns about Takacs’ communication with parents in Montgomery County’s smallest school district — particularly amid the universally quick-shifting plans and procedures of the COVID-19 era.
Jenkintown’s school board appears to have taken that note, highlighting D’Angelo’s narrative chops as a reason for hiring her.
“The board decided to hire Dr. D’Angelo due to her combination of leadership, team building, and communication skills,” board president Carolyn Riley said. “She struck the right balance between expertise and a ‘friendly but firm’ quality.”
Riley also highlighted the new superintendent’s experience with special education and facilities management — critical for the steward of Jenkintown’s 103-year-old high school building.
But the district’s new chief storyteller also knows what communication barriers feel like: D’Angelo grew up hearing both English and Russian, but had to pick up much more Russian as a child to interact with her Ukrainian grandmother.
Those skills came in handy when Ukrainian refugees arrived in Hatboro-Horsham, and D’Angelo was enlisted to help families get settled.
“I fell into it because I was pretty much the only Russian speaker on the staff,” D’Angelo said. ”I can’t even imagine fleeing my home, going to a place not speaking the language. … That was really something that I pride myself in, being able to connect with these families and support them.”
Public relations is often a struggle for public schools, which must balance legally required disclosure with legally required secrecy, especially for personal details about individual students and staff — details like the circumstances surrounding Takacs’ departure.
D’Angelo hopes that being fully transparent from the beginning with information she is allowed to share will help residents trust her on topics she cannot say much about.
“I’m OK with being vulnerable in certain situations,” D’Angelo said. “When you build that strength with community members, with staff, with families — there’s a bit more understanding when I go silent on certain things, knowing it’s not because I don’t want to say it; it’s because I can’t."
Perhaps sports will be one of those topics: A diehard Philadelphia football and basketball fan (“I bleed green for the Eagles,” she said), D’Angelo already attended a Color Day this year, but she refuses to say which team is better.
“I will be rooting for Blue and Red all the time, or I’ll be purple,” the new superintendent said. “Yeah, it’s gonna be one of those.”
Inquirer Greater Abington
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