Superintendent

Superintendent’s Message

Welcome to East Providence, a city of vibrant neighborhoods, an expanding waterfront, a bike path, and families who have been here for generations alongside families who arrived last month. Our schools belong to all of them. Having grown up in East Providence and later served as an educator in the city's public schools, I have come to recognize four values that guide my work as Superintendent of Schools: learning, character, community, and opportunity.

Learning comes in different forms for different students. The kindergartner who can now zip her coat, the Life Skills student who counted his own change at lunch, or the 7^th grade trumpet player who finally hit a high A note, have accomplished something as valuable as the senior who earned a 5 on the AP Calculus exam. We honor learning in all its forms, and we will give students opportunities to grow in every year of their experience in the East Providence Schools.

Character development starts at home, but it continues in every corner of school life. By engaging with caring adults who hold high expectations and with peers who both push and support them, students build character through victories and through challenges alike. Whether it is a lesson that finally clicks after weeks of struggle, a hard loss on the field, a long tiring rehearsal, organizing a club event, or presenting the findings of a senior project. These are the moments where character takes hold and where students learn to chart their own course.

Community is what families bring to elementary schools and what students find when they come together at East Providence High School. They arrive from the Riverside Terrace to the Pawtucket line, and from every neighborhood between, completing their years in our schools in one of the newest and finest buildings in Rhode Island. They come from different streets, different cultures, and different languages spoken at home, and what holds them together is Townie Pride. Townie Pride is more than a slogan on a banner. It is acceptance, and the understanding that ours is a diverse city and that difference is part of what makes it strong. It is a shared desire to build something better for the students who come next. Ours is a community that turns out for its schools like no other. In the stands, in the audience, at the polls, at the meetings, and in the volunteer hours, community shines through.

Opportunity means every student deserves a path that fits them and leads somewhere real. Across our elementary schools, middle schools, and high school, we work to open doors toward college and toward careers. Opportunity only counts if students can reach it, so we focus on access as much as on offerings. But an open door is only half of it. Families and schools have to work in partnership for students to take hold of what is available to them. It happens in conversations at the kitchen table, the nudge to try the harder class or the new club, the willingness to follow through when something gets difficult. These matter as much as anything we put in the course catalog. We are asking families to walk this with us, and we are grateful to the many who already do.

So consider this an invitation. Whether your family has been here for four generations or four weeks, whether you came to East Providence for the schools or found them once you arrived, there is a place for you here. Townie Pride is not something you have to be born into. It is something you choose. If you do make this choice, you will find yourself part of a community that wants the same thing you want want for the students of the East Providence Schools – opportunities to live happy, productive lives.