Bricolage Academy Principal Caitlin Meehan-Draper will leave the Esplanade Avenue elementary school at the end of June, Lamplighter has confirmed.

“I expected to lead you for many more years,” she wrote in an email to staff earlier this week. 

Her email followed one from CEO Edward Brown, in which he greeted the all-staff email list with “Good Afternoon Trojans!” before announcing Meehan-Draper’s departure.

Meehan-Draper started at Bricolage in 2018 as the school was adding middle school grades. She served as the middle school principal beginning in 2021 and became full school principal in 2025.

At a board meeting last week, she touted academic growth in nearly every grade and subject.

Parent and Staff Concerns

Bricolage Academy’s board of directors held its monthly meeting on May 12 in a second-floor classroom. Board members, lacking identifying place cards, sat in rows of desks facing the front of the classroom where Brown operated a laptop and slide deck. Brown is wrapping up his first school year as CEO.

Bricolage Community Association members Lauren Wilson and Sari Levy spoke on behalf of parents and staff, pointing to staff concerns about Brown’s leadership and other operational issues, including a vacant human resources position.

More than 20 staff members have sent letters to the board of directors, Wilson said. Their concerns included unannounced staffing changes, the delay in job offers for next school year and the reduction in pre-kindergarten classrooms, she said.

“We fear this is threatening the stability of the school,” Wilson said. 

During the finance presentation, Ross Knorr, a school finance manager at EdOps, Bricolage’s financial contractor said the school has 54 days of cash on hand, an improvement, he said.

School leaders announced they had resumed paying the school’s electricity bill. 

After the presentations and public comment, the board entered into executive session. Brown attended a portion of the closed-door meeting along with Adams & Reese attorney Lee Reid. 

When the public session resumed, board chair Norman Barnum IV said the board had discussed Brown’s work.

“This board stands fully committed to work with Dr. Brown as our CEO and move forward in an effort to reengage our Bricolage values with our parents and teachers that expressed their concerns relative to Dr. Brown’s leadership.”

Upcoming School Year

Six days after the board meeting, Meehan-Draper’s departure was announced.

In an email Friday, Brown said the resignation was “unexpected news.” 

Meehan-Draper did not respond to a request for comment. 

“While we are saddened to see her leave, we are grateful for her leadership and the many contributions she has made to Bricolage Academy,” Brown wrote via email Friday.

The school has launched a search for a new principal.

Brown also answered a question about pre-kindergarten raised during the meeting: Bricolage is reducing the number of its pre-kindergarten classrooms.

This fall, the school will operate one pre-k class. That’s down from the three sections that have been open over the last three school years. Brown said that decision was driven largely by finances.