Faces Of New Bedford #241: Taylor DeLoach

Meet Taylor DeLoach, principal of the Frederick Douglass Campus of the Alma del Mar charter schools in New Bedford.

Taylor grew up in Maryland before moving to Middletown, Connecticut, where she studied at Wesleyan University. She continued her education at the Charles Sposato Graduate School of Education in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. While in graduate school, Taylor was sent to several Greater Boston area charter schools, which brought her to Alma del Mar in New Bedford. The team and culture at Alma impressed her, but she believed she wanted to stay in the Boston area. Taylor returned to Alma del Mar again for an interview. She fell in love with the school and started her career at the Sarah D. Ottiwell Campus.

Taylor spent two years as a first-grade teacher, moved to a third-grade class, and began mentoring other teachers. She was then promoted to the school’s Dean of Culture for the next two years. During that time, Alma del Mar decided to expand to a second campus. After consideration, Taylor applied and was hired to be the principal of the second campus in 2019.

For Taylor, her experiences over the last eight years working for Alma at every level in New Bedford had been an amazing experience, exceeding her childhood dream of becoming a teacher. Now in her third year as principal, and the first year of the newly built school, named after Frederick Douglass, who also had a connection to Maryland like herself, she describes the experience as serendipitous.

She hopes to use the words, stories, and legacy of the school’s namesake to provide the knowledge, skill, and confidence to Alma’s students so they can make an impact in the community as he did.

“My personal mission in life was always to do right by my kids in my classroom because I always wanted to be a teacher. Now, getting to be a principal, I feel the weight of responsibility of making sure we’re getting strong academic, social, and emotional outcomes for all the kids. Unlike being a teacher which can feel isolating at times, because you’re the one adult in a classroom alone with the kids. Being at the principal level has really shown me how our community works together to get those outcomes and it has really been one of the great joys of my life to have had this experience here.”

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Faces of New Bedford is a New Bedford Guide project being undertaken by Josh Souza. If you’d like to nominate someone or ask a question you can inquire with him through email at josh@newbedfordguide.com.

Faces of New Bedford began as a project by Colton Simmons. You can find Colton on Instagram: https://instagram.com/simmonscolton.