Christine Borelli

Christine serves as a Principal Coach for the School District of Philadelphia. In this role, she provides coaching and professional development for school leaders. Previously, Christine served as the principal of Benjamin Franklin High School from 2017 – 2021. Under her leadership, Benjamin Franklin increased the percentage of students attending 95% or more days from 9% to 29.7%, increased the number of students with zero suspensions from 65% to 88%, and achieved a nearly 10% decrease in the percentage of chronically truant students. Further, the Ben Franklin HS 9th grade on-track to graduate rate increased from 42% to 59.6% and the 12th grade four-year cohort on-track to graduate rate increased from 67.1% to 76.1%. Additionally the 12th grade four-year cohort firmly on track to graduate rate increased from 9.8% to 22.4%.

Christine has been an educator since 1999. Prior to becoming principal at Ben Franklin, Christine served as Chief Executive Officer of a Renaissance (turnaround) charter school, Chief Turnaround Officer for a charter management organization, elementary school principal in Kensington, assistant principal, instructional support coach, and English teacher. In 2012, Christine received the Lindback Award for Distinguished Principal Leadership.

Christine earned her credential from the University of Virginia’s School Turnaround Specialist Program. In her doctoral program, Christine focused her dissertation on the evaluation of a reading intervention program to narrow the achievement gap of urban elementary students. She is passionate about improving the quality of education for young people who are often victims of the opportunity gap that occurs in many urban districts. Christine is an advocate for educational equity and leads her team of dynamic educators to provide students with every opportunity to overcome the biases that prevent academic success for so many of our children. Christine grew up in Philadelphia and attended Philadelphia High School for Girls.