BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Michelle Cino likes to help others. Therefore, she loves what she sees at Bradford Elementary School, where she is the new assistant principal.
“One of the things I noticed right away was the support that everyone gives everybody else,” Cino said. “There’s no ‘no’ when somebody’s asked to support another person.”
That’s a great thing for Cino to see — everyone working together to do what’s best for students.
“I’m really excited to work with everybody here,” she said. “I can already tell that we’ve got a great family atmosphere. Everybody’s passionate about student success.”
Cino, who has 25-plus years of experience as a teacher and administrator in Marion County, grew up in Gainesville as the oldest of five children.
“My youngest sibling was born when I was 14,” Cino said. “I played the part of helping out with transportation, school — everything.”
It was an experience that would inspire her to go into education, though she didn’t choose to go to school to become a teacher at first. She took a job at the University of Florida.
“I realized that I was helping these grownups with things, but it wasn’t nearly as exciting or fulfilling as it was on the adult side as it was with my siblings.”
Cino made the decision to become a teacher, earning her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from St. Leo University while also working a full-time job. She admitted her first-time experience in the classroom left her feeling overwhelmed and in need of support, but then said she was “very blessed” to be hired as a third-grade teacher in Marion County. Cino said she found herself in a great environment for a new teacher, with her colleagues there to support her.
“I constantly went to professional learning,” she said. “They gave me books I could read. They sat in on parent conferences. They helped me with grades and paperwork.
“The first year was very different from the second year, but then after that, I really had the confidence I could be a contributing member to the school community, not just the classroom.”
Helping teachers help students
She taught at Reddick-Collier, Sparr and Evergreen elementary schools, serving as a classroom teacher and reading coach.
One of the principals she worked for put her in a role of coaching new teachers. Though helping adults in a non-education job wasn’t fulfilling, Cino came to find she wanted to help adults in the school setting, which inspired her to go into administration.
“I realized I really loved helping the adults feel successful in the classroom, and I wanted them to feel the way I felt when I was in the classroom,” Cino said, adding, “I went into (administration) saying, ‘If I can help the grownups feel confident and secure about what they’re doing, then that’s going to help more kids. It’s always about what’s best for kids.”
Cino, who earned her master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University, served as an assistant principal at Legacy, Anthony and Wyomina Park elementary schools. She was named Marion County’s Assistant Principal of the Year while at Ocala’s Wyomina Park. Cino didn’t think the notification she received of the honor was legitimate.
“I thought it was a spam email,” she said, adding, “I had to call the district office and be like, ‘Is this a real email?’”
Cino would eventually become principal at Ocala Springs Elementary School, serving in that role for six years. While there, she earned a Principal of the Year award.
“It was very surprising both times,” Cino said of the district-level honors she received. “I was very grateful and then wanted to live up to that honor.”
Going to Bradford
Cino took on a new role in Marion County as coordinator of professional learning, which she filled for a few months. She described it as a great experience, which had her working with one of her mentors. Though she loved everyone she worked with, the one thing the position couldn’t satisfy was having that connection with the children.
“It definitely helped me focus on what support and what kind of professional learning would make a difference for teachers and staff — non-instructional and instructional — but it also did make me miss the kids,” Cino said. “As much as I loved supporting the grownups, I always wanted to see students on campus during the day.”
Now, she’s back on a campus, but in a new district. Cino said she liked what was going on in Bradford County with Superintendent of Schools Will Hartley and Assistant Superintendent Karen Clarke, whose career she had followed when Clarke worked in Alachua County.
“Just seeing how passionate they are about the kids and the teachers and just Bradford County as a whole was just inspirational,” said Cino, who was looking to work somewhere with a “community feel.”
She’s also working at a school that has been on quite the upward trajectory regarding state-assigned grades. Going back to its days as Southside Elementary School, the school has improved a letter grade each year since earning a D in 2022, resulting in a 2025 grade of A.
“It’s so exciting and inspirational. Every little piece has been put into place for student success and communicating with families and making sure they’re involved,” Cino said, adding, “You can talk about letter grades all the time, but really, the exciting part is that more students are growing and more students are working on grade level.”
Approach as an administrator
Cino said she’s had positive and negative experiences with administrators, so when she became one herself, she knew what she wanted to be and what she didn’t want to be.
“I knew that I always wanted to have an open-door policy and always have teachers, staff and anybody who worked on my campus to feel comfortable coming to me and telling me things that they needed to and let me work out a gameplan with them.”
An open-door policy doesn’t mean she’s always in the office. For Cino, it’s important to go into classrooms and talk to students and “finding out how they’re feeling, listening to them be excited about school and helping them through any struggle they might have.”
“One of the things I’ve learned is I try to schedule times for classroom visits during the day and make sure I’m not only going in the morning, but I’m going in the afternoon, and not just every Tuesday or Thursday. Switch up your days.”
Visiting classrooms and being visible on campus is also a way to assist teachers, whether they need a bathroom break, to go get something out of their mailbox or need her help in leading a group session because their paraprofessional is out that day.
“There’s nothing I won’t do to support them,” Cino said.
Cino has enjoyed meeting Bradford Elementary teachers as they’ve been “trickling back in.”
“They’re wonderful,” Cino said. “They come right in and say hi and introduce themselves and ask questions, which I love because that shows me that they feel comfortable with me already if they’re asking for things and sharing with me.”
She used to grapple with the difficult aspects of being an administrator, but a mentor once told her, “Michelle, if you can lay your head down at night and know that you’ve done what’s best for kids, then everything else will fall into place.”
“That’s really helped me,” Cino said.
Outside of school
One of the activities Cino enjoys when she’s not on the job is reading. She enjoys mystery thrillers and works by authors such as Tom Clancy and John Grisham.
A book, though, can’t contain certain things. Otherwise, she won’t read it.
“I don’t read books in which children get hurt,” Cino said. “I have rules. When I tell my friends to recommend books to me, I’m like, ‘No kids can be hurt. No parents can be sick.’”
She enjoys reading some true crime, but again, she has to know ahead of time what that crime involves before deciding to read it.
Cino also enjoys cooking, baking and trying out new recipes. Bradford Elementary School’s new teachers got a taste of her work as they were treated to cupcakes.
“It just gives me quiet time,” Cino said of cooking and baking, adding, “I just love it. I love to be in the kitchen.”
She and her husband have two children: a son, also named Jimmy, and a daughter, Bella. Jimmy has been a student coach for the UF football team and will soon graduate. Bella is set to begin her first year at Florida State University.
“They are completely opposite in every way, so that only makes sense,” Cino said of her children attending the different schools.
As someone who grew up Gainesville, Cino is a Gator. Her husband went to UF as well.
Cino will, however, support her daughter.
“I’ll wear garnet and gold for four years, but then I’m done,” she said, adding, “I will never do the chop, but I’ll wear the colors.”
Ready to welcome back students
Cino has so many things to look forward to, saying, “I’m just excited. Excited to meet the students, build relationships with our staff and our families, continue the vision and mission that (Principal Cassie) Melvin, Mr. Hartley and Mrs. Clarke have started here and making sure that they feel equipped to help the students feel successful.”
She also wants to become immersed in the community outside of school, getting to know people, whether they have children in the school system or not.
The one thing perhaps she’s most excited about is the students’ first day.
“I love greeting them in the morning,” Cino said. “I tell everybody my favorite part of the day is car line and being at the buses.”
