Brian Fitzgerald brings with him a wide skill set to Newberry Academy.

Fitzgerald is the new head of the school and looks forward to raising the already high achievements of the small, independent school.

He says the school already does a great job academically but he hopes to bring in a different perspective.

Previous to becoming the new head of school at the academy, he was the head of Dillon Christian School in Dillon and before Dillon he was assistant head of school at Trinity Collegiate in Florence.

One goal he has for Newberry Academy is to bring enrollment up and while he was at Dillon Christian, he raised that school’s enrollment and dealt with the albeit small budget on a very good business operation.

He says he hopes to bring that skill set, among others, to the academy.

Fitzgerald says that he has been quite fortunate with his previous jobs to have worked for who he has and to have been given as much responsibilities as he has been given.

“I have devoted my career to independent education,” says Fitzgerald, “and I am one of the strongest advocates for independent education.”

However, while he is an advocate for independent education, he does not think it is any better than the public school education system.

He doesn’t believe it’s necessary for the public, private and independent schools to criticize one another because as long as the schools do their best to service the people and educate the children, everything’s okay.

He notes that families who choose independent education choose it for a reason and for those that do choose the independent school route, he wants to assure those parents that the academy will provide a nurturing and safe environment.

That is a big goal for Fitzgerald to bring to the school.