In the News

By Brian Zahn, New Haven Register
POSTED: 06/29/17, 5:19 PM EDT

NORTH HAVEN >> As the Area Cooperative Educational Services continues to expand the scope of its services in the greater New Haven area, its ACES Institute named a chief Thursday.

Rachel Sexton, an original teacher at ACES Collaborative High School was tapped for the position of ACES Institute Chief. She has been with the agency for five years, serving as an education specialist, Director of Talent Development, and most recently, Interim Chief of the ACES Institute, ACES said in a press release.

“The chief of ACES Institute position is a really exciting opportunity to focus on our human capital and social capital as well as developing our service offerings,” Sexton said in a phone interview. “It’s a role that is part of a larger move by the agency to expand its service offerings and to reposition what we do to be more broadly and quickly responsive to client needs.”

In addition to providing arts education to greater New Haven area students through the ACES Educational Center for the Arts magnet school program, ACES offers programs available to districts and offers professional development opportunities for educators and administrators.

“It’s part of the new generation of ACES to become more agile and more responsive to the changing needs of our districts,” said Evelyn Rossetti-Ryan, ACES chief of marketing and outreach.

Recently, ACES ECA signed an agreement with a branch of the Chinese Ministry of Education to provide study abroad opportunities for Chinese students, representing a culture shift in the Chinese education system and a internationalization of the ACES curricular offerings.

“Rachel brings an expansive knowledge base of educational issues, great intellectual energy, and strong interpersonal skills to this role. We are excited at the potential of her leadership for overall agency improvement. I look forward to working with her in this new leadership role and am confident that she will contribute to ACES growth and development in significant ways,” said Thomas Danehy, ACES executive director, in a statement.