Wearing empty backpacks and new outfits, their cheeks still rosy from the summer sun, a long line of students stood outside the Oak Bluffs School waiting to meet their new principal, Richie Smith, on Thursday morning.
Huddled under the awning, the students and Mr. Smith refused to let a September downpour dampen their spirits. This was the first day of school, and everyone was ready for a fresh start.
“Are you nervous? I’m more nervous than you, I bet!” Mr. Smith exclaimed to a kindergartener, crouching down to speak to the youngster at eye level.
“It’s nice to see you, good luck this year,” he said to another as streams of students filed through the front door. “I’m looking forward to getting to know you guys.”
“Welcome to our school, you’re going to love it here,” eighth grader Oliver Carson said to Mr. Smith.
Inside, kindergarteners and first graders posed in the front hall as tearful parents took pictures. And then the parents were gone and students were settling into classrooms for another school year.
There will be adjustments all around in the coming months as Mr. Smith takes the helm of this elementary school, charged with a turnaround that includes bringing up test scores. And he is more than up to the challenge. Mr. Smith served as principal at the high-performing Tisbury School from 2007 until this summer, when he was appointed to the top post in Oak Bluffs by Vineyard schools superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss.
Mr. Smith began work at his new job August 1. In an interview early this week he said it feels as if he’s been there for three years, not five weeks. And while he said he will miss his colleagues at the Tisbury School, he’s already bought a new tie to match the Oak Bluffs School colors.
Rocked by changes in leadership, budget constraints and low scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test in recent years, Oak Bluffs has been labeled an under-performing school and has not made the state’s adequate yearly progress (AYP) marks in math and English for three years.
But Mr. Smith has nothing but confidence when it comes to the future of his new school.
“When our school improves — and I have zero doubt that it will improve — it will be because the teachers here are able to bring together their talents,” he said sitting in his new office, his degree plaques still resting on the floor and waiting to be hung on the wall. “What is best about your practice and mine — we’re sharing that now and supporting the kids. If we keep our doors shut that communication never happens,” he said.
He has already made changes, including restructuring the teaching model to encourage collaboration among educators in the school at all grade levels. Time is now built into the daily schedule for teachers to work together.
“I said to the them [the teachers], if you simply talk about the Seinfeld rerun from last night at 11:30, that’s okay at first. While they’re figuring out how to best use this time, that ability to share space is going to facilitate and foster the communication.”
He continued: “This is a really talented staff. It’s got a lot of good people on it. I need to be an administrator where I figure out a format that allows the sum to be greater than the parts, the individuals. And I think the format will do that, the way we communicate will help do it.”
Mr. Smith said he also will partner special needs teachers with grade level teachers, which will allow children to stay in the classroom more and receive support there instead of being pulled out for remedial work.
To address the low math scores Mr. Smith will begin a math remediation program. The school already has a literacy remediation program in place, and he said math should be no exception.
“I think by bringing up those children [who need remediation] we bring up our entire school,” he said. “We’re going to have a focus on our children who struggle and not only look at assessments to figure out who’s struggling, but we also need the second step of bringing the support.”
He did not downplay the school’s problems, including its failure to make AYP for three years running, but said there has in fact been progress, pointing to high language arts scores and improved grade point averages as examples.
“I’m seeing very good growth, honestly, [grade points] are the first thing I want to look at,” the principal said. “That means our model needs to be changed, not the practice of the teachers, so that’s why I brought a new model in.”
Level funding and budget cuts have had an impact on the school without a doubt, he said.
“I think the struggles of the town with the economic woes and the budget issues that are happening are definitely going to be extended to our school,” he said. But then comes the trademark Richie Smith optimism. “One of the things we want to do is look toward the future,” he said.
And he said the buck stops with him. “If the school does well it’s because the teachers have supported the kids. If people embrace the ideas I’ve put in place, and if we fail, it’ll be 100 per cent my responsibility,” he said.
This is hardly the first challenge Mr. Smith has faced in his career as an educator. A Virginia Polytechnic Institute and University of Virginia graduate, he is a former social studies teacher and also taught students with behavioral issues.
He also has confronted personal challenges. He said he learned firsthand about the Island as a special place when his son Renny was born with a congenital heart defect in 2007. Renny has been through four major heart surgeries, and Mr. Smith said the Tisbury and Oak Bluffs school communities have held him and his family up all the way.
“People I’d never met before would send us money, they’d send us food — that doesn’t happen any place else I’ve ever lived,” he said. “We decided we would stick around, and I’ve never been happier in my entire life.”
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