8.3.2020
You can always expect great things from Brockton Community Schools and that starts with our Director -- Dr. Soraya de Barros -- who has served the students and families of the Brockton Public Schools since 1997 with compassionate energy, determination and strong leadership.
Brockton Community Schools oversees academic support, enrichment programs and Extended Day Child Care for students, continuing education and ESL services for adults, and recreation and enrichment programs for the community.
In her first year in Community Schools (CS), Dr. de Barros has:
- Instituted efforts to modernize CS, preserving decades of paper records on digital files;
- Co-chaired a successful fundraising campaign to purchase laptops for students/families with no home technology as COVID-19 forced months of remote learning;
- Worked with the Advisory Board to brainstorm rebranding for the 21st Century;
- Implemented creative and engaging virtual alternatives to in-person summer classwork and courses due to mandated social isolation;
- Worked with the Drivers’ Education team to provide students with two in-person, intensive summer sessions; and
- Raised the image of CS, added instructors and sessions, and she is preparing to diversify course offerings when in-person attendance returns.
“We want to connect with youth and adults of Brockton and surrounding areas in truly meaningful ways,” Dr. de Barros said. Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused many classes to be cancelled or held virtually, Dr. de Barros said Brockton Community Schools remains committed to finding new ways to serve. “Is there something you’d like to know about? Tell us and we’ll try to make it happen.
Dr. de Barros worked most recently as Director of the School Registration and Parent Information Center where she was responsible for all student assignments in grades PreK-12, all related student enrollment documents and records, and all parent information issues. She was first hired as a Transitional Bilingual Education teacher at the Belmont Street Elementary School and from fall 2006 through the summer of 2010 she was a Citywide Standards-Based Mathematics Coach for grades K-8.
In 2010, Dr. de Barros was chosen to participate in the district’s intensive administrative internship program, working with high-level district administrators for a valuable day-to-day look at how departments and schools function. She was also involved in teacher training for many years and was an adjunct professor at Fitchburg State University and Cambridge College.
- She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology in 1996 from Eastern Nazarene College, also receiving that year’s Outstanding Student Award in her major.
- She earned a Master’s degree in Education in English as a Second Language from Eastern Nazarene College in May 2003.
- She added Master’s and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in 2016 from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, where she graduated with highest honors, Summa Cum Laude.
Contact Dr. de Barros at sorayaidebarros@bpsma.org
