In late August, Principal David Newman informed the school community that Brooklyn Tech would be getting a new Parent Coordinator, Ms. Mary Huhn. Prior to the establishment of the Parent Coordinator role this year, the Assistant Principal of Student and Parent Engagement, Ms. Nottingham, handled the responsibilities of a Parent Coordinator. Ms. Nottingham held this position for eight years, until this school year, where she has now taken on the role of the Assistant Principal of Testing. The responsibilities of the Assistant Principal of Student and Parent Engagement also entailed communicating with the student body, and those have been given to the COSA’s: mainly the lead COSA, Ms. Massie.

Ms. Huhn assumed her position as Parent Coordinator on August 30th, 2021, two weeks before the school year started. A Parent Coordinator is a vital part of a school community, especially at Tech, which boasts one of the largest student bodies in New York. The Parent Coordinator is in charge of keeping the parents of over 6,000 students informed and updated about what is happening within the school and also works to give parents a voice within the school.

This is the first time that Ms. Huhn has officially held a position in education. Prior to working at Tech, she volunteered at her son’s schools, P.S. 107 and M.S. 447, which included a stint as the PA president of M.S. 447 during the pandemic. Because many parents felt disconnected, a challenge also faced by Tech, she made it her goal as the PTA president to make parents feel more connected.

Before entering the education field, Ms. Huhn worked as a journalist for Adweek, Rolling Stone, and The New York Post, where she wrote for the business and feature sections. She also wrote for the parenting section of the New York Post.
As Ms. Huhn assumed her new position during the pandemic, there were several challenges that she was tasked to deal with. Ms. Huhn plans to “help parents as much as [she] possibly can, and make them feel connected to the school.” She added that a challenge she has had to deal with so far is that “many parents have not been inside the building;” Covid regulations have restricted the school from hosting in-person Parents Association meetings this year, which has left many parents feeling disconnected from the school. Ms. Huhn believes that the pandemic has created challenges for her as a parent coordinator, and for the school community as a whole, so she wants to make parents feel more connected by introducing some of the teachers, sending out photos of everyone at school, and creating a personal newsletter.

As the Parent Coordinator, Ms. Huhn will likely work closely with the Student Government. Samuel Ashkenas, the Sophomore Class Treasurer for the 2021-2022 school year, said that he does not know the new Parent Coordinator well yet, but he does “look forward to getting to know her better, and hopefully incorporating her into a lot of events and things we do in SGO.” The AP of Student and Parent Engagement had a big role in the Student Government, and Ashkenas hopes that the new Parent Coordinator will act in the same capacity moving forward.

Ms. Huhn became the Parent Coordinator at a time when the Tech community was facing new challenges, and increasing communication with parents and giving them a voice within the community are some of her main goals.