Cheers rang out Tuesday at the Portuguese American Club as Martha’s Vineyard superintendent of schools Richard M. Smith arrived for an election night gathering to celebrate the historic high school project win.
The successful vote caps a 24-year career in Island schools for Mr. Smith, universally known as Richie, who is retiring at the end of the month.
“People are behind this, and that just makes me feel incredibly happy,” he said. “It makes me feel like I wish I wasn’t leaving, you know?”
Promoted to superintendent four years ago after seven years as assistant superintendent, Mr. Smith has seen the Island school system through the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, a wave of principal retirements, expansions in special education and English learning programs and the long, complex process of winning voter support for the high school project.
“Richie has done a remarkable job of building relationships, making people feel heard and supporting education,” all-Island school committee chair Amy Houghton told the Gazette this week.
He’s also weathered a tricky time in American public education, as federal funds have tightened and immigration enforcement fears have roiled the Island’s Brazilian community.
Apolitical in public, Mr. Smith has steadfastly supported the Island’s immigrant schoolchildren and their families. Just months into his job, in September of 2022, he joined the volunteers helping Venezuelan migrants who were unexpectedly dropped off on the Vineyard by a plane from Texas.
Last month, Mr. Smith connected with the advocacy group MV LUCE to help a 15-year-old high school student detained by federal immigration officials.
“There are certain things that are beyond our control, but we will try all we can to support the child,” he said at the time.
The student has since returned to the Island.
The well-being of Island students is his ultimate priority, he told the Gazette during a interview at his office in a converted church across from the Tisbury school.
While the future regional high school may represent the most visible aspect of his legacy, Mr. Smith himself points to the people he has hired as principals, assistant superintendents and program directors.
“Choosing the right leaders is, for me, the right way to run an organization,” he said.
“The stamp that I’ve tried to make as a teacher and as a principal and now as a superintendent has been that we lead with care [and] that all of our staff take care of our children,” he said.
“That is the underlying value that really drives the things that I do as a school leader,” he added.
Mr. Smith began his Island career as a counselor at the Oak Bluffs school and later became its principal, after a stint at the Tisbury School. His wife, Melissa Smith, has been a teacher at the Oak Bluffs school since the couple arrived on Island in 2002. They will now return to their home state of Virginia to care for her aging father, Mr. Smith said.
The all-Island school committee at first was divided on promoting Mr. Smith to the top job, after former superintendent Matthew D’Andrea moved to a mainland school district in 2022 with two years left in his contract.
After agreeing to have Mr. Smith finish Mr. D’Andrea’s term, the school committee decided after the first year not to search for a permanent replacement. Mr. Smith also won the committee’s support for a series of changes at the district’s central office, stepping up grant applications, expanding special education and English language services and using his own former salary to hire two retired Island principals as part-time assistant superintendents to separately oversee curriculum and operations.
“I’m a believer in finding talent and bringing talent over into areas where I feel like they are going to [flourish],” he told the Gazette.
More recently, Mr. Smith hired former Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School principal Sara Dingledy to work with town schools on coordinating their middle-school curriculum to prepare students for high school classes.
He also has picked the current principals of the Chilmark, Edgartown and Oak Bluffs schools and convinced high school guidance counselor Sean Mulvey to fill in as that school’s principal for the past year.
After Mr. Mulvey decided to return to the counseling department, Mr. Smith worked with a volunteer advisory group to interview candidates and ultimately decided on current Stoneham High School principal Bryan Lombardi, who is moving to the Vineyard at the end of June.
“You are going to love the manner in which he supports kids,” Mr. Smith said. “He’s exactly what I want in this system, because with the relationships he builds and the trust he builds, he’s going to be able to move the school forward.”
Mr. Smith also is enthusiastic about his own replacement, Jaime T. Curley, currently assistant superintendent of student services for the Old Rochester school district in Plymouth County.
“I’ve really grown fond of her. We have worked together a lot and spoken a lot, and I’m really excited for our system,” he said. “She’s going to lead with care, but I believe she’s going to bring in a different lens.”
“I know she’s going to respect the work that has been done, and I think we’re in really good hands with her,” he added.
Mr. Smith will receive more accolades June 27, when the Martha’s Vineyard Diversity Coalition presents him with its first Friend and Leader Award at the volunteer antiracism group’s annual Truth and Joy Celebration.
It may be hard, however, to top the joy and gratitude of election night, when the high school project met with overwhelming voter approval after years of painstaking preparation.
“People have just put their heart and soul into this, so it just makes me happy,” Mr. Smith said. “I feel better than I’ve felt a long time.”
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